Fun for all at 72nd annual Turkey Carnival

The Odessa Lions Club Turkey Carnival, held last Saturday in the community center, was another successful venture for the service club that has been a fixture in Odessa for decades. This was, in fact, the 72nd Turkey Carnival in Odessa’s history.

Businesses and individuals donated prizes for a raffle that, in addition to the bingo games played for turkeys, raised money for the club’s various civic and national projects. A “spin the wheel” game also allowed participants to win turkeys, or later on in the evening, whole pies to take home.

The community center kitchen opened at noon with club members cooking up hamburgers, hot dogs and nachos, with slices of fruit pies or cream pies for dessert and water, soft drinks and coffee for beverages.

Kiddie games were available for younger folks, with the members of the Odessa Junior Livestock 4-H Club manning the booths.

The most entertaining portion of the evening was almost certainly the dunk tank, once volunteers were found who would allow themselves to be dunked. Mayor Doug Plinski, attorney Mark DeWulf (whose three sons were first in line to try to dunk their dad) and Odessa Chamber president Marlon Schafer were the brave trio of adults (our photographers missed getting any shots of actual dunkings of Schafer).

Earlier in the day, at least one 4-H member, Caleb Singer, braved the tank of unheated water. There may well have been others; our reporters were not present for the entire day’s activities.

As always, the Lions put on a stellar event, and the public came out to enjoy the food, games and visiting that make the Turkey Carnival such a pleasant way to spend the Saturday before Thanksgiving.