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Tracy Lawrence’s Annual Mission:Possible Turkey Fry Cooks Up 1,600 Turkeys, Will Serve 25,000 Thanksgiving Meals To Those In Need Around Nashville
Giving back to his community.
For the past 19 years, country music legend Tracy Lawrence has spent the week of Thanksgiving the same way most Americans will be celebrating this week: Cooking turkey.
But unlike most Americans, Tracy isn't just cooking up one bird to feed his family. He's frying up 1,600 to feed his community.
Tracy and friends took to the Nashville Fairgrounds today for his 19th annual Mission:Possible Turkey Fry, an event benefiting the Nashville Rescue Mission that has served nearly 100,000 meals to the homeless community in Middle Tennessee over nearly two decades.
I stopped by the Fairgrounds this morning to talk to Tracy about the event and what it means to the community - and how it got started:
"Just a handful of friends wanting to give back to the rescue mission, wanting to do something positive for the community. We've just taken advantage of the opportunities when they presented themselves and grown into this amazing event with all these volunteers and so many great sponsors."
And Tracy's not kidding when he talks about the contributions from volunteers that help to make sure the event can happen. This year, he estimates between 250-300 volunteers showed up to help fry up the birds, accept donations and pack bags full of side dishes to be handed out to those in need. But it's way more than one day of work to make it all happen:
"I bet we had 75 last night getting everything prepped and laying all the pops out and setting our grid up and everything, getting everything set up, and cleaning and prepping our turkeys.
I bet we have 250 to 300 here today at least...and a lot of these folks have been coming every single year, so it's something they put on their list that they come and participate with every year. It's kind of an official kickoff to the holiday season here in Nashville."
Over the course of the day, Tracy estimated that they would fry around 1,600 turkeys, which were all donated by the National Wild Turkey Federation and Cargill Turkey. And in addition to those birds, another 1,500 will be donated to various organizations in the area to cook for themselves and serve to the community.
It all adds up to around 25,000 meals that will be provided to those in need around Middle Tennessee. But beyond the food, Tracy has also made it his mission to raise money to help keep the support going.
As part of the Turkey Fry, Tracy will be hosting a concert at Luke Combs' new downtown Nashville bar, Category 10, featuring performances from Meghan Patrick, Russell Dickerson, Halfway to Hazard and John Schneider (who you may know as Bo Duke from the Dukes of Hazzard).
And he also recently launched his own injectable marinade, with a portion of the sales going to support the homeless community in the Nashville area.
Over the years, Tracy's Mission:Possible foundation has raised millions of dollars that he's been able to donate back into his Nashville community, and he hopes that it inspires others to do the same in their own communities:
"Hopefully what we do will inspire other people. If they have any questions we'll be happy to share our footprint with them and show them how we've done this and how we've grown. Hopefully we can inspire other people to do what we do here, and other people can do it in other places."
But that doesn't mean that Tracy doesn't have bigger visions for what he can do in his own community. In addition to his annual Mission:Possible golf tournament, he would like to eventually add a music festival that would be able to bring even more help to those in need:
"At some point I would like to see us do something like Farm Aid. We've talked about possibly adding a summertime concert where we actually pay acts and we do something on a televised, grand level. That would be another piece that if we could get to that, something that is on our agenda that we're in conversations about now.
There's always room to grow."
If you're interested in learning more about supporting Tracy's Mission:Possible foundation, you can check out their website here. And if you're interested in trying out his marinade (I've got a jar sitting on my counter now that I can't wait to try out), you can get it on Amazon and Tracy's website for now, but it will also be available in stores soon.
And it's all going to a good cause.
@whiskeyriff @Tracy Lawrence ?? // whiskeyriff.com #whiskeyriff #tracylawrence ♬ Find out Who Your Friends Are - Tracy Lawrence
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