Fifty volunteers put the finishing touches on an annual day of sharing at New Life Church in Pine Bluff on Tuesday that included the frying of 150 turkeys and enough risk to make the men happy.
“There’s hot grease and open flames. Somebody could die,” said a grinning Matt Mosler, pastor of the church. “That makes it a perfect men’s event.”
Each year, volunteers from the church – women, too – turn out to fire up 30-something cookers placed around the church’s parking lot. On Tuesday, they were in place before 7 a.m., fighting off the last raindrops from Monday’s storms.
Cars then started showing up with occupants delivering not one but at least two turkeys to the event. One of the fried birds would go home with the person who brought the pair, and the other was for charity.
“Ideally, people took the second turkey home and gave it to someone in need,” Mosler said. “We are trying to rebuild the serve mentality. You go home and help your neighbors. Here’s a turkey. Happy Thanksgiving. That restores hope in the community and part of that is through helping someone.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Mosler’s church, at the back of the parking lot of Jefferson Square Shopping Center, has tackled the cook-off for seven years now, and this year, they fried 150 turkeys with 95 of them going to the Delta Food Network, which will distribute them to those in need.
The event is a bit messy and, as Mosler said, a little dangerous. Propane tanks are connected to each of the cookers, which are filled with piping hot oil. The cooks wear big gloves to handle the hot equipment but the smell of frying oil permeates the air and the drips take their toll on the volunteers’ clothing as well as on the parking lot, which becomes a mostly slick surface by the time the frying stops.
One of those volunteers, Jim Miller, who called himself a military brat, moved to the Pine Bluff area a few years ago from Virginia to help Mosler with his church ministry.
“I’ve known Matt for 43 years,” Miller said.
“Forty-four years!” Mosler yelled from across the parking lot.
“OK. Forty-four years,” Miller said.
“The Lord called me here,” Miller said, adding that he had retired from Microsoft. “We have been helping Matt with his mission work for years, anything to do with the community. I’ve been helping out with the turkey fry for a couple of years.”
The event, which was supposed to last until around 2 p.m., wrapped up early because there were so many volunteers and so many outdoor cookers available, Mosler said, adding that the city’s Fire Department would be along shortly to spray wash the parking lot to remove the oily spills.