AUGUSTA, Ga. — Thanksgiving is four weeks away, and the Richmond County Marshal’s Office wants to make sure 65 Augusta families have a turkey on the table when it arrives. The office’s charitable fund has opened its annual turkey drive and is asking residents, businesses and community groups to pitch in.
This is the eighth straight year Marshal Ramone Lamkin has led the effort. Lamkin has said he began the drive after watching families in the county struggle to afford a holiday meal, and he describes the work as part of what public service is supposed to be.
What started as one office project has turned into a yearly tradition with a broad base of help. Churches, schools, local businesses and civic clubs have all backed it in past years, along with plenty of individual givers, and staff from the office have hauled boxes of holiday supplies out to families once the collection wraps up.
Donors can give in two ways. Anyone bringing a bird, whether it is frozen or fresh, can leave it at the office’s substation, 3050 Deans Bridge Road in Augusta. Cash gifts go through the Richmond County Marshal’s Office Charitable Fund online at rcmocharitablefund.com.
The office is also nudging groups to run their own collections. Churches, clubs and workplaces are invited to gather turkeys or money together, and even to dare a rival group, a set of co-workers or a circle of friends to match them.
The goal stays the same as the count of families: 65 households fed on Thanksgiving Day, with every bird and dollar staying in Richmond County.
Filed under: Augusta GA Neighborhood News
