County wide 4-H project fills CRC's freezers

Delivery at the CRC on Thursday, July 23.

The Manchester Community Resource Center (CRC) was the recipient of some very special gifts last week, thanks to the efforts of an annual 4-H community service project.

"During a normal year, some of our poultry kids raise chickens and/or turkeys as a community service project," explained Christie Warren, parent to two 4-H'ers, Rhea and Ethan, who participated in this year's project. "Due to COVID, we had to cancel the chicken project, but our turkey project was started in February so we were able to continue that one."

Each youth member who chooses to do the project gets either two turkeys or 10 chickens to raise. For the turkeys, one is raised for a food bank; the other can be kept or put in the 4-H auction. For chickens, five are raised for the charity and the remaining five can be kept or sold at auction. This year, all the turkeys were donated by Warren Farms of Manchester; the feed to raise them was donated by Dexter Mill; and pine shavings were donated by Patch Boys of Ann Arbor.

"Our youth members do a fantastic job of raising the birds," Warren said. "I'm very proud of them!"

The five youth who participated this year are from different Washtenaw County 4-H Clubs. Ethan and Rhea are members of Silver Leaves 4-H Club of Dexter; Ethan and Eric Rice are from Paint Creek 4-H in Ypsilanti; William Rogers is a member of the Saline 4-H Farmers; and the S&L Bauernhof 4-H Club of South Lyon made it a club project and raised two turkeys.

A total of six turkeys were donated to the Manchester CRC. The groups wanted to keep the donation local this year and chose the CRC as the recipient for the 131.3 pounds of turkey donated.

CRC Director Laura Seyfried was thankful for the gift. "The turkeys came as a big surprise!" she said. "We were also really pleased that the donor was willing to 'halve' some of them so our clients would actually be able to fit them in an oven to cook them.

"I am sure they won't last long ... Roasted turkey is great any time of year!"

Ethan Warren of Manchester, and his turkey

Rhea Warren of Manchester, with her turkey.

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.