Turkey team: Greensburg man organizes Thanksgiving charity drive

Dominick Domasky of Greensburg finally feels like he’s ready for Thanksgiving after he receives his truckload of turkeys, packed in boxes and stacked on pallets.

“There’s four turkeys in a box, and they’re giant boxes, about 4 feet high,” Domasky said. “They bring these boxes out … one weird-looking dolly at a time, and you’re like, ‘That must be enough,’ and that’s only one of the three dollies that they are bringing out.”

The turkeys are one component of the Motivation Champs Annual Turkey Drive, a Thanksgiving charity run by Domasky and friends, entering its third year.

The group met Saturday to deliver more than 200 turkeys, with side dishes and all the fixings, to families across Western Pennsylvania. The effort encompasses households from near the West Virginia border all the way to Johnstown.

“There is zero judgment,” Domasky said. “If somebody makes a call and gets in touch with us, we’ll give them a turkey.”

Domasky, who founded the “inspiration sharing” publishing and motivational speaker company Motivation Champs, organized the first drive two years ago with collaborators Jim Aujay and Lynn Wagner. The group set a goal of buying and delivering 25 turkeys in their first year but were able to raise enough funds for 50 birds.

“There are so many people in need in our communities and our surrounding communities, and what people don’t always understand is they don’t always have a vehicle to get somewhere,” Domasky said. “What we wanted to do is we consider it dignity, no scarlet letter. We’re going to deliver them to your house.”

The group quickly accumulated volunteers and funds. Upwards of $5,000 in donations have poured in for this year’s drive, and more than 100 volunteers have signed on to load, pack and deliver turkeys, Domasky said.

Members of the volunteer team have contributed new components to the drive each year. Girl Scout Troops 16361 of Penn Township and 16848 of Delmont contributed a batch of 200 handmade holiday cards, which will be included with the turkey packages.

Delivery plans

The group met at Bruster’s ice cream shop in New Stanton to work as a team to drive the food to families. The process of delivering the turkeys used to take Domasky and volunteers three days to complete, but now can be finished in a day.

“We will have drivers come and have about 20 routes, and the (Hempfield) wrestling team and other volunteers will pack everything up like an assembly line,” Domasky said. “It starts at 8 a.m. That’s when the wrestlers get there. Then the drivers will start coming through, and the drivers and wrestlers load the cars.”

Gathering the goods for families over the past two years has further convinced Domasky of his own personal philosophy: It “takes a village” to help others.

“I don’t have the money to do it on my own, I don’t have the time, I don’t have the capacity. But when you have all these people, (they) say, ‘I can give you 5 minutes, I can give you 10, I can give you a Saturday,’” he said. “The community wants to make a difference, people want to make a difference. However you would like to contribute, whether it’s your time or one more can of cranberries, we could use one more can of cranberries.”

For more information or to donate, see www.motivationchamps.com or https://gofund.me/91ab5949https://gofund.me/91ab5949gofund.me/91ab5949