King Park Community Center Turkey Drive Underway

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center, 1531 W. Vliet St. Photo taken Nov. 22, 2022 by Graham Kilmer.

With a bitter and contentious political cycle in the rearview, now, perhaps, is a perfect time for magnanimity.

Milwaukee County Parks‘ King Park Community Center is offering an opportunity for just that.

The center’s annual Make A Family Smile Turkey Drive is underway. Each year the organization attempts to raise enough donations to feed 3,000 families on Thanksgiving. Last year the drive managed to raise enough for more than 1,500 families.

Dee McCollum, the community center director, started the turkey drive more than a decade ago to help families in need around the holidays. It all started when she purchased 10 baskets of holiday food with her own money. It’s grown since then, feeding more than 4,000 families around the holidays, according to Parks.

Former county executive Chris Abele was an early supporter of the initiative, which is run in partnership with King Advisory, Inc. and the We Care Crew. Mary Nelson of Aurora Health Care was another early supporter, donating dozens of baskets to the drive annually, Parks said.

Anyone interested in donating can mail cash, or a check payable to King Advisory, Inc.. to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, Attn: Dee McCollum, 1531 W Vliet St., Milwaukee, WI 53205. Non-perishable food items can also be dropped off in-person at the King Center. The deadline for donations is Nov. 22.

On Nov. 25, the center will hold a turkey giveaway between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.

‘This event provides families with the food that they need to enjoy not only a warm, but a meaningful, Thanksgiving dinner,” County Executive David Crowley said in a video announcement from the We Care Crew. “We know that times are tough for many, and no one — I mean no one —  should have go without for the holidays.”