Big River’s 9th Annual Turkey Drive Donations Exceeds Previous Years

Dec. 27, 2012 - PRLog -- Big River, with their Telephone and Broadband divisions held their 9th Annual Holiday Turkey Drive from November 1st through December 21st.  The donations from the drive exceeded each of the previous years.  There were LIVE events, held between November 19th and the 21st at the Cape Girardeau Schnucks store.  Partners of Big River this year were Schnucks, The Salvation Army, and Withers Broadcasting, which all helped sponsor and promote the drive to help provide holiday meals for families in the local area.

All of the donations that were given to this year’s drive were used by the Salvation Army to directly provide thousands of meals for families for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  People were to present a Turkey Drive voucher and $10 donation at the register in Schnucks when checking out.  All of the donations were then given to the Salvation Army.  At each of the LIVE events, employees from Big River Telephone and Big River Broadband promoted the Turkey Drive and handed out vouchers.  Big River also encouraged people to “Like” their Big River Telephone Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/bigrivertelephone.  For every “Like” that they received during the Turkey Drive Big River would donate $2 to go towards the Turkey Drive.

This year’s donations have generated double the amount Big River has received in any year in the nine-year history of the Holiday Turkey Drive.  Big River is thankful to have the support of their employees, Schnucks, The Salvation Army, and Withers Broadcasting for making this possible. “Big River is proud to host this annual event.  In the economic times that we live in, it is important to reach out and help our neighbors.  This could be any of us and the employees of Big River are so supportive of this event and lending a helping hand.  Let’s make sure we help each other, not only during the holiday season, but year round,” said Kevin Cantwell, President of Big River.

With over seven thousand dollars donated, hundreds of meals were able to be provided to people in our community.  Big River, The Salvation Army, and Schnucks have been overwhelmed with the generosity of the Cape Girardeau area.  Schnucks Teammates, through their ‘Dressed for Charity’ program, also added $500 to the total amount raised during the drive.  “Schnucks Cape Girardeau Teammates take great pride in their community involvement, and the Annual Turkey Drive is an event that we look forward to each year,” said Dennis Marchi, Store Manager of Schnucks.  “Our ‘Dressed for Charity’ day was a great way for our teammates to support The Salvation Army while serving customers.” Major Ben Stilwell, with The Salvation Army, was overjoyed when he heard the amount of donations that were given, “Praise the Lord, and a great big Thank You to Big River and Schnucks.  Without the volunteers, we could not do what we do.  The sponsors of this Holiday Turkey Drive have done the best job ever!”

Big River Telephone Company (www.bigrivertelephone.com) is a full-service telecommunications provider operating across the United States and headquartered in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  Big River Telephone is one of the oldest competitive telephone companies in the United States.  Founded in 1983, as a long distance carrier, Big River Telephone has evolved over the years into one of the premier Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLEC) in America.  In addition to being a successful CLEC, Big River Telephone is a market leader in delivering wholesale Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).