Nearly 1,000 Enjoy Turkey Trot In Windham

WINDHAM, NH — Nearly 1,000 runners and walkers spent Thanksgiving participating in the 28th annual Windham Turkey Trot.

The runners started on Blossom Road, with participants deciding to walk or run for one, three, or five miles, with different routes. When registering to participate, trotters commit to donating money to Shepherd’s Pantry, Windham’s food pantry, which also celebrated its 30th year of serving families in need in Windham and southern New Hampshire.

The trot was created after two neighbors, Louise Peltz and Heidi Reever, who wanted to go out for a run on Thanksgiving in the early 1990s but were unable to due to hosting. The first trot had about 50 neighbors participating.

Two years ago, the trot was taken over by dedicated Shepherd’s Pantry volunteers — the family of Brian and Vicky Woods and Jen Gutierrez. The org also added the DeWane Family as the new host Family of the Turkey Trot Start/Finish Line.

Due to the increasing cost of food, the number of families served by the pantry has increased.

In the past, it has been around 90 families per week. During the past two weeks before Thanksgiving, the pantry served more than 260 families with turkeys and all the fixings, in addition to their normal grocery items. The pantry offers those in need one or two bags of groceries, including produce, bread, eggs, meat, pastry, and personal products, at the Windham Presbyterian Church on Mondays.

Sponsors

The organizers thanked the following sponsors for 2022:

• Diamond sponsor: Bill DeLuca Family of Dealerships, which sponsored the org’s very first Turkey Mascot.
• Platinum sponsor: Windham Orthodontics
• Gold sponsors: Avise Properties, The Phinney Team, The Kelleher Family, Enterprise Bank, Cyr Lumber, Citizens Securities, and Concord Nissan.
• Silver sponsors: Tuscan Brands, Santo Insurance, Edward Jones, and Balance Rehabilitation & Health Science.

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