The Angoon Community Association, partnering with the City of Angoon, is holding a turkey drive for the town’s approximately 500 residents here in Juneau Monday and Tuesday.
“It’s an annual thing. Usually the City of Angoon does it themselves,” said Samantha Ramey, a community association employee. “This year the Angoon Community Association reached out to the mayor to offer our help and he gave us the go ahead.”
The drive aims to get birds for each household in the town, Ramey said. Lockdowns and limited ferry service have made getting many things more difficult for residents of outlying communities in the Southeast.
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“I helped organize the last year. It dawned on me that I hadn’t heard anything advertised,” Ramey said. “Our goal is to provide to all 132 households in Angoon with a turkey for the holiday.”
Getting off the ground late in early November, the community association got it done with a little bit of luck.
“It just so happens that the new community association trucks happened to be in Juneau at the perfect time,” Ramey said.
The trucks, a pair of refrigerated box trucks, will allow the turkeys to get to Angoon ready to be handed out. Ramey said she’s helping to organize the handout on the Angoon side. In Juneau, Caleb Jack and Garrett Jack are collecting the turkeys, working out of the office of Kootznoowoo Inc., Angoon’s Native corporation.
As of Monday afternoon, there had already been a half a dozen turkeys donated, said Garrett Jack, but that was minutes into the drive. The trucks will travel to Angoon via ferry before the holiday, Ramey said.
Want to donate?
Bring turkeys to suite 104 in the Kootznoowoo Plaza at 8585 Old Dairy Road, in the same building as Juno FroYo and Canton Asian Bistro near Nugget Mall, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday. No special preparation is necessary.
• Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at (757) 621-1197 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.
