Gobbling for a Presidential Pardon

I’ve been working on a very special project this month and I finally get to share it with you!

If you’ve read my blog before, then you know I work for the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association. This fall, one of our members, who raises turkeys on his family farm in far northwestern Minnesota (How far? No offense, but you can practically see Canada from his farm!), is expected to get an official invitation from the White House to bring a turkey for the National Thanksgiving Turkey pardoning ceremony with President Obama.

What you may not even realize is this ceremony has quite a history to it – it’s been held every year since Harry S. Truman was President in the 1940s. (Well, I better clarify – it wasn’t officially a “pardoning” ceremony until President George H.W. Bush declared it so in 1989, but it still has been a long-standing tradition to bring a turkey to the White House.)

How cool is that?

So I’ve been busy working with staff at the office to update our website, gather photos of the special “Presidential Flock” being raised (like the one above) and creating a fun, little intro video of the birds and John Burkel, the farmer who will be invited.

And why is John the lucky guy, you ask?   John is the 2013 Chairman of the National Turkey Federation, which means one of his many roles is to serve as the spokesman for the turkey industry in the U.S., and I would bet that getting this invite from the White House will probably be the highlight of his family’s year.

I’ve known John and his wife, Joni, for a lot of years (and I mean,  A LOT) of years. They have five pretty awesome kids, ranging from kindergarten to college-age – and the entire family will be traveling to DC for the pardoning ceremony. Did I mention they are from Badger, Minnesota? Population 370. (Hellooooo Canada and all that.) And the entire family will be at the White House – talk about a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

So anyway, finally today we had all the initial pieces together and ready to go so I did my first posts on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

You can read all about it on our website, but I wanted to share a couple of pieces with you right now:

I am sharing this photo because 1) that’s President Truman on the left, and more importantly (at least to me), 2) that’s Grady McCulley on the far right. Now I realize Grady McCulley is not a name you would know – but if I know my turkey history (and usually I do), he was the first Minnesotan to present a turkey to the U.S. President on behalf of the National Turkey Federation. And because I’ve worked forever and a day at the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association (okay, 18 years – but still), I was lucky enough to meet Grady several times! He was such a smart, funny, friendly guy and I learned a lot from sitting around talking to him.

This video introduces you to the 2013 Presidential Flock and John Burkel. I pieced it together with a bunch of video footage John sent my way a week or so ago – nothing too fancy but it’s fun. And I crack up every time I watch it because there is one turkey that really seems to like the camera. I’m a dork like that, though. 🙂

If you’d like to follow along with this whole project, you can do so by liking Minnesota Turkey on Facebook, following on Twitter (@MinnesotaTurkey), following us on Pinterest, and visiting the Presidential Turkey website we have created. And be sure to check out our turkey naming contest, too, and start brainstorming!

Until next time … enjoy!