“This is what it’s all about…

…people helping people.”

Amherst – More than 100 people started forming a line in downtown Amherst Sunday afternoon, not to see a movie but to receive a free Thanksgiving Day Turkey.

The Turkey Giveaway was organized by Amherst’s newly formed Great Lakes Church. Trina Johnson of Great Lakes Church said that with the economy as bad as it is, people in our community are hurting. “We meet people every Sunday who come to Church and they will us about the hard times they are going through, some will even fill out the prayer cards during the service and ask other to pray for them during this difficult time. We read those cards and we understand that they need help so we talked with 3 other Churches in Amherst and with some local businesses about offering people at least a turkey for the holiday.”

With the money they raised and with a generous discount from a local Wal-Mart, the group had enough to purchase about 70 turkeys by Saturday night. After an article ran in the Lorain Morning Journal however the phones began to ring with questions about the giveaway leaving the group to wonder if 70 would be enough. Hearing about the dilemma, LifeCare Ambulance – who is currently constructing a new station in downtown Amherst – kicked in enough to purchase an addition 10 turkeys.

Rich Johnson, the Lead Pastor of Great Lakes Church, said that the event and turn out far exceeded his expectations. “As you can see we had people lining up about 45 minutes early and we ended up with about 40 people who were unable to leave here today with a turkey.”

Johnson said that his staff took down the names and phone numbers of the 40 people and assured them that they would have a turkey for them Monday night. “Once we saw that we were short we all kind of huddled up and came up with the plan to invite the people back Monday night to pick up their turkeys – then we had to start figuring out how we were going to come up with the money for the extra birds.”


While Johnson was telling the 40 people about their plan b, his volunteer staff from the church began digging into their pockets. Some approached Trina Johnson with cash, others with checkbooks in hand. “We already have such good church family that is very giving and care so much for their community and their neighbors. We collected more than half of what we need to purchase the extra turkeys, so we will take care of getting the rest tomorrow and make sure the people that came here today to get a turkey – will have one for Thanksgiving. This is what it’s all about – people helping people.”



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