Every year, the South Windsor High School football team holds their annual turkey drive during Thanksgiving. The drive, led by coaches Dave Hodge and Rich Mabey, is an opportunity for the players and their families to give back to the community, and starting on November 5th, and donations slowly started rolling in. All participants of the drive have an option to donate using either cash, check, or Venmo.

The Turkey Drive first originated in 2013, during Coach Hodge’s first year as the head coach. Coach Hodge and Coach Mabey both discussed and agreed that more community involvement was needed for the players and the football program. Mabey felt that these players should know the importance of helping out and hopefully will remember the experiences they make during the Turkey Drive, bringing it into their future lives as well.

All turkeys and donations are given to South Windsor Food Bank and the Hockanum Valley Food Bank in Vernon, allowing families in need of food this Thanksgiving to share this special tradition. This year, Coach Mabey and some of the senior players went to purchase turkeys and chickens together, and then met up to hand all the turkeys out.

“The drive has evolved over time, though,” as Mabey explained. 

In their 11th year, things have changed quite a bit. In previous years, the players went door to door, handing out donation slips, and hoping these families would purchase a turkey. Now, the donations have spread from just turkeys, to chickens, gift cards, and even checks. The food banks receive checks to purchase the food they need as well, rather than hundreds of turkeys. This has helped feed many families in need under Coach Mabey’s leadership.

 Mabey has been in charge of organizing the drive, and has had plenty of memorable experiences giving back to the community. 

“During the 2018 turkey drive, former Bobcat players attending UCONN used their fraternity funds to donate to the turkey drive after they graduated from the program, and this just showed the impact that this drive has on the players, which is exactly what Hodge and I wanted,” Mabey told The Prowl.

Mabey also claimed that over the 11 years the Turkey Drive has existed, over $40,000 have been raised for the community, which amounts to about 4,000 turkeys. The majority of the donations come from the South Windsor High School faculty fund, along with the football players and their families.

In the previous years, the sum of donations usually comes out to around $3,000, but this year, thanks to the faculty and staff at South Windsor High School Faculty Fund donating $2,100, the Turkey Drive has raised over $5,000 to spend on turkeys, gift cards, and donations for the food banks. This drive allows everyone to have a happy holiday season, including those in need, and it is all thanks to Coach Mabey, the South Windsor Bobcat Football program, and their donors.