TURNERS FALLS — The Thomas Memorial Golf & Country Club had originally expected to donate about 20 Thanksgiving baskets to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office’s TRIAD team to be distributed to local seniors.
But, in the month and a half that the club’s food drive took, as more and more members got involved, they found ways to save costs and stretch their money further. By the time the dinners were to be delivered, a week before Thanksgiving, they had arranged 48 baskets.
The centerpiece of each basket was a 20-pound turkey, which was packed on the morning of the delivery along with any other perishables. Each basket also had a sack of potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, corn and peas, sausage, onions, celery, squash, cream cheese, rolls and a pie.
“The shopping took quite a bit of chasing,” said Chet Czernich, who organized the first-time donation with his wife, Charlene.
The Czerniches brought the idea to the club’s organizing board in September. A club member who worked for the Sheriff’s Office put them in touch with TRIAD, and the club held a fundraising golf tournament, which brought in $1,365, Chet Czernich said.
Other members helped to stretch the money as far as they could. One of the bartenders connected the club with someone who gave them a deal on squash, Chet Czernich said. One member donated all the potatoes.
For everything else, they checked all the grocery stores as far as Brattleboro, Vt. for the best prices they could find, and followed the newspapers to find out when each store had sales on the items they needed, Chet Czernich said. They got the pies in a two-for-$5 sale, for example.
They found the celery when Czernich happened to notice an especially low price at Food City in Turners Falls. He bought the entire stock, then came back the next day for more.
This was the first year the golf club has organized a Thanksgiving donation like this, but the Czerniches want to make it a yearly event.
“Things like this tend to grow the more years you have it,” Charlene Czernich said.
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 261.