Holidays can be an emotional time and typically, they’re spent with family. In an effort to give back to the community that we cherish so dearly, we at Daniel Stark hosted a turkey giveaway for Thanksgiving.
In order to be eligible, the first 50 people to post a picture on the Daniel Stark Facebook page with the family and using the hashtag #DSFamilyTurkey, in addition to liking the Facebook page, would win a turkey.
The turnout was far greater than we anticipated and we absolutely loved it. In the end, we were able to give away 53 turkeys and winners were asked to come to our Bryan office to pick them up between 4-6pm the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
We set up a table for everyone to sign in, and then we took Polaroid pictures with the winners and their family in our Fall Photo Stand In. We also made the Polaroid into a Christmas ornament so they could take it home with them.
Prior to picking up her turkey, one of our winners told us that her whole family was waiting on the call that her son had returned to FortHood after having been deployed overseas for 11 months. Right before she came in to pick up her turkey, she received the call that he was back. In a small work of holiday magic, as she was coming into the Bryan office, another woman came in at the same time, even though they didn’t come together. As fate would have it, the other woman had been her support while her son was deployed, so she was able to tell her that he had just gotten back. They shared a very special moment in the office (hugging, tears, laughter,) that we all got to be a part of. Several of our staff members have family that’s deployed, so it hit home with everyone.
The good news kept rolling in.
After Thanksgiving, we received this message from one of the winners: “I just wanted to let y’all know, y’all saved my families Thanksgiving. This was the first year my mother was NOT going to have one, but I mainly think it was the cost, because of her now taking care of my siblings on her one small salary. Because of the free turkey we got, my mother agreed upon cooking it. I talked to my other siblings who lived out of the house as well as my aunts and we all agreed on bringing a side to mother’s house for Thanksgiving. We had a really great one this year, the whole family, laughing and joking J
Thank you so much Daniel Stark and friends for making Thanksgiving for our family this year. I really am grateful. And the turkey was amazing.”
We were so glad to share this experience with so many amazing people. We thank our community for being so engaged with Daniel Stark and being involved with our events. We wish everyone Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.
