Walkie Talkie Blog - Weekly Volcano - The alternative newsweekly for Tacoma and Olympia

Financial stress comes almost as easily as the joy and happiness holidays bring to families. Reducing financial stress was the primary reason dozens of members of the Washington National Guard and Washington Military Department came together this morning at Camp Murray to get some exercise and help provide meals to accompany the turkeys arriving at Murray next week. Operation Turkey Drop provides complimentary holiday turkeys to servicemembers during the Thanksgiving week. The Washington National Guard's Family Programs has been a major recipient for this program and, for the third year in a row, has once again added in all the "fixings" - with the help from their guardsmen. The annual Turkey Trot 5K run for the Washington National Guard encourages all participants to bring a non-perishable food item to the run.

After this morning's run, the Family Programs staff staged bags with the donated food items as "sides" to accompany the forthcoming Operation Turkey Drop turkeys.

"The event is a great way to start Friday off on the right foot and it truly is amazing to see all of the canned goods piling up," said the Turkey Trot's NCOIC and Washington National Guard Suicide Prevention Program manager, Staff Sgt. Adam Zangenberg. "I know the soldiers really enjoyed dressing up in their hunting gear as well."

"Wear Your Favorite Hunting Gear" was this morning's theme - and there were plenty of outfits that weren't hard to miss, even if they did blend in to the scenery. These ongoing themed-runs are a low-pressure way to encourage physical fitness and assist in building the morale of the Washington National Guard.

"There were plenty of smiles from the sergeant majors down to the specialists," said Zangenberg. "I even had one civilian, who retired a while ago, tell me he hasn't ran this long in years."

With plenty of hunting outfits and even a break in the morning rain during the run, the Camp Murray Turkey Trot provided the perfect venue to conduct physical fitness in a fun setting, all for a meaningful cause.

"Military families will get to benefit from all the food collected and even just one can of food makes the run worthwhile," Zangenberg said. "We support our service members throughout the year and this was a great way of saying thanks during the Thanksgiving holiday season."