All day, frozen turkeys trickled in to Eric Williams’s venerable Clippin 2 Please barbershop on State Avenue, beginning to pile up in the back of a 15-foot U-Haul truck. The mayor brought some earlier, then Sheriff Soptic, then the USD 500 maintenance staff. The Egyptian Cobras motorcycle club brought several turkeys, along with cases of corn bread mix and cans of vegetables for the sides.

Just before seven, the trickle turned into a flood of frozen birds, when Dr. Carlos Pacheco III arrived with a caravan, bringing 400 turkeys to be distributed in Williams’s Turkey Tuesday charitable distribution.

The line of five large pickup trucks loaded with boxes of frozen turkeys pulled up to the barber shop at 3211 State Avenue. Despite an intermittent cold rain, Pacheco, with fellow commissioner-elect Andrew Kump and his brother Geoffrey Kump, and other volunteers immediately formed a bucket brigade line from the pickups into the U-Haul, swelling the total to 750 donated turkeys.

Williams and other volunteers worked late into the evening, splitting up and bagging the sides for easy car-side distribution to families in need on Tuesday.

13 Years of growing community support

Turkey Tuesday began as a friendly competition between barber shops on both sides of the state line. Williams partnered with Missouri barber Joseph Thomas 13 years ago after initially speaking up at one of Thomas’s events to say Kansas needed to be involved.

“I said, ‘You’ll never do it without Kansas,'” Williams recalled, referring to Thomas’s ambitious donation goals. “So he said, ‘Let’s talk.’ It wasn’t a competition — well, it is a competition — but I wanted to help. He already got the wheel. Just let me jump in on the wheel.”

The partnership has grown stronger over the years. “We talk all week. We strategize all month,” Williams said. “His mom is my other mom. We became like the closest people.”

Together, Williams and Thomas have distributed between 1,500 and 2,000 turkeys in recent years. The event has seen dramatic growth from its early days. Williams recalled one particularly overwhelming year when former NBA player Earl Watson, a Washington graduate, bought hundreds of turkeys with little warning.

“The year that Earl gave me turkeys, I had almost 700, 800 by him alone,” Williams said. “So with the town I ended up with another one hundred or two. So I had 900 by myself.”

Watson’s generous donation that year tested the operation’s capacity. “If it wasn’t for Kathy Quinn, I don’t know how we would’ve gotten rid of them,” Williams said, describing boxes already stacked six or seven feet tall at seven o’clock in the morning. Quinn, a longtime Fox 4 news anchor, got the word out quickly, and the public responded, with traffic clogging State Avenue in both directions.

“I had a line down to 28th Street, and I had a line up at McDonald’s,” Williams said. “People would leave cars on State, walking down the street.”

Despite the challenges, Williams embraces the growth. “It gets bigger and bigger. They get more fun,” he said. “It’s a good problem to have. I don’t worry. I used to worry if I had enough. Now I don’t worry about if I’ve got enough.”

This year’s event maintained that fun spirit despite the rain. The Gateway Highsteppers dance team performed in the parking lot of the barber shop, bundled up against the chill and high-stepping around puddles to entertain volunteers and community members while the caravan was on its way.

Doctor becomes a partner

The partnership with Pacheco began three years ago in an examination room when Williams brought up Turkey Tuesday during a physical.

“We talked about it, and he was like, ‘Man, that’s cool. I’d like to help,'” Williams said. “I didn’t know — I’m trying to think of what I can get you to help do. You want to stand out here and take temperatures or give health advice? I mean, I didn’t know. He was really like, ‘I like want to help.'”

When Pacheco offered to reach out for turkeys, Williams was skeptical of the commitment. “He brought probably the first time 15 [or] 20. He was like, ‘Watch next year,'” Williams said.

The following year, Pacheco arrived with a convoy that caught Williams’ attention. “He came through this way and it was like one, two, three F-150s. It came like, bang,” Williams said, meeting not just Pacheco but also his father-in-law and brother.

This year, Pacheco raised more than $6,000 through his own donations and from friends, family, and community partners.

Expanding community partnerships

Pacheco partnered with Helping the Heartland, a nonprofit founded by newly elected officials Geoffrey Kump, who will serve on the Kansas City Kansas Community College Board, and Andrew Kump, who was elected as Unified Government commissioner. Legends Toyota also supported the effort.

“We’re really blessed,” Andrew Kump said. “My brothers Geoffrey and Charles and I, we run a nonprofit and we’re partially inspired by the work that Carlos and Jenny do. So when we saw that they were doing it again this year, we really wanted to be involved.”

After helping move 400 turkeys through the bucket brigade line, Kump acknowledged the physical toll. “I’ll tell you what, I felt better 10 years ago when I was playing football. Age has caught up to me a little bit,” he said with a laugh. “But it’s one of those deals where when you got everybody, the whole community out here helping, it really makes it go quicker. [I’ll be] a little sore tomorrow, but that’s a small price to pay for being able to help.”

Mayor-elect Christal Watson was one of the first to contribute, donating turkeys last week, earlier than Williams typically starts accepting donations.

“I was like, I don’t start this thing until next Monday,” Williams said. “You’ve got to put them in my freezer at home and then what else I’m gonna do with it? You got so much stuff in my freezer, I’m about to get put out.” He always manages to make room, though, noting that some people want to donate before traveling out of town for Thanksgiving.

Dotte Pride on display

For Pacheco, the event represents the kind of community spirit he campaigned on. One of his key messages during his election campaign was restoring pride in Wyandotte County.

“One of the things I ran on was that we absolutely have to return to Dotte Pride,” he said. “There’s nobody else in the city who says I’m wearing a ‘Grandview Proud’ or ‘Lenexa Pride’ or anything like that. We wear ‘Dotte Pride’ on our shirts. We need to be acting like it.”

He added that representing the western part of the county doesn’t mean ignoring other areas. “We’re down here on the east side because it’s all community, and that’s what makes us,” he said.