Bill Lame remembers, 26 years ago, the birth of the Christian Men of Boerne Thanksgiving Turkey Fry.
“It was five of us guys in my driveway, five men making five turkeys,” Lame said.
In the years since, numerous churches and civic organizations joined the deep-fry turkey effort. Last Wednesday, about 300 turkeys were lowered into deep fryers, fried at 350 degrees for around 30 minutes, bagged and boxed before being placed into the trunks and backseats of more than 250 vehicles.
Members of the Christian Men of Boerne come together on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in the Kendall County Fairgrounds every year. There, they prepare the hundred of turkeys that serve as the centerpiece for a Thanksgiving meal, given to about 250 families in the Boerne area that otherwise might not have such a holiday feast.
Lame and the rest of the Christian Men of Boerne come from seven churches in the area and pull together to prepare the turkeys. Hill Country Family Services in turn works with the Boerne Independent School District to assemble a list of families that may suffer from food insecurity — particularly during the holidays, when school lunches are not being served to the family’s children.
HCFS brings its cadre of volunteers, who handle distribution in the fairgrounds parking lot area.
Sitting off to the side of the fairgrounds pavilion, Lame casually pointed toward several fryers, calling out men by their first names, describing the position or chore they were doing, and estimating how long they’ve been part of the turkey fry.
“Everyone, they know their role here. Unless you hate what you’re doing, you’re going to be doing it next year, I’m not out here training people,” Lame laughed.
Carl Behrendt and his son, Jacob, were active in the fairground pavilion area Wednesday. Behrendt first joined the turkey fry in 2010.
“I inherited a turkey fryer from my dad,” he said. “Now, we only use it for this.”
When first involved, Behrendt brought his preteen son with him.
“He enjoys doing it. He was off (attending) college in Abilene this year, and he had to make it back home for this,” he said.
Lame said the men fellowship, exchange well-wishes and prayers, and play dominoes, cards or chess while their turkeys fry. “The beauty of this is, these are family events,” Lame said. “We have a guy who bought five boys, his boys, today. They’ll remember being here today for a long, long time.”
Conversation paused when Lame saw a gentleman walk by with his 6- or 7-year-old son who was cautiously carrying a 20-or-so pound turkey on a metal turkey rack.
“When you first do it, it’s like, ‘Oh my God, am I going to drop this?’” Lame said. “But once you do it, you’ll be back to do it, again and again.”
Staci Almiger, HCFS CEO, said the Christian Men have the process polished to near-perfection.
“It’s an unbelievable effort, what they do and have done for so many people,” Almiger said.
Lame said he leaves the assembling of the list of recipients to HCFS, which makes contact with the families, assigns a time for families to show up, and then places the boxed meals in their vehicles.
Food insecurity wasn’t a problem on Thanksgiving for the 250 families on the list — thanks to the combined effort of the Christian Men of Boerne, Hill Country Family Services, Boerne ISD and the hundreds of volunteers who turned up to make the day a success.
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