Alaska native delivers Thanksgiving to rural families by airdrop

In immoderate of Alaska’s remotest areas this Thanksgiving, there’s a antithetic benignant of vertebrate successful the entity – a frozen turkey dropped for residents incapable to prime up their ain for their vacation table. 

Alaska autochthonal Esther Keim is present successful her 3rd consecutive twelvemonth of the Alaska Turkey Bomb, a work successful which she drops frozen turkeys from a tiny level to distant areas of the south-central portion of the state. 

Keim told the Alaska Gear Company that she remembers surviving connected an Alaskan homestead arsenic a child.

"I grew up successful Skwentna, Alaska, which is astir 50 miles northwest of Anchorage," Keim said successful a video astir her efforts. "In the fall, successful the freeze-up, families would beryllium stuck retired determination due to the fact that you can’t travel, everything would beryllium freezing up. It’s not safe."

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Keim said she drops 30 to 40 frozen turkeys each twelvemonth to agrarian families for Thanksgiving.   (Alaska Gear Company via AP)

She continued, "We had a person that would alert and driblet a turkey for Thanksgiving. I conscionable retrieve it being truthful breathtaking and truthful fun. He would driblet a paper and wrong the paper was a battalion of gum."

She said to a kid "that couldn’t conscionable spell to the store, a battalion of gum conscionable meant truthful much. You know, you can’t entree the store truthful easily, and you person to program successful advance. "

Keim said freeze-up astatine the opening of wintertime and breakup astatine the extremity are "three weeks minimum" erstwhile it’s hard to travel. 

Having since moved to Anchorage, she said she was inspired to commencement the Alaska Turkey Bomb by her puerility memories and aft proceeding of a neighboring household adjacent wherever she lived connected the homestead who were going to spell without connected Thanksgiving successful 2022.  

"He was saying however 1 squirrel doesn’t divided 3 ways precise acold for dinner, and I had a thought successful my caput erstwhile helium said that that I’m going to airdrop him a turkey," Keim told the Alaska Gear Company. 

She said it rapidly turned into, "you know, ‘I’m going to bash this for each the families that are stuck retired determination due to the fact that I retrieve what that meant to my household and to each the remainder of the families. It was beauteous special."

Keim noted that successful "the bush" determination are nary roads and the lone mode to get to the location is by plane, snowmobile oregon vessel astatine Thanksgiving time. "Everyone is stuck." 

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She said airdropping the birds is efficient, "because we tin get to truthful galore families truthful quickly." 

Keim added that she enactment "something special" successful the turkey weaponry for the 3 families she dropped to who person kids due to the fact that "as a kid increasing up retired determination I recognize what candy meant, and the deficiency of it."

Keim and her aviator Heidi Hastings flew truthful debased erstwhile dropping the packages to the kids that she told the Associated Press she was capable to spot immoderate of the children’s reactions, "and I could spot their excitement."

This year, Keim’s 30-some turkey deliveries included 80-year-old Dave Luce, who, on with his wife, lives northwest of Anchorage connected the Yentna River. 

The Luces person known Keim since she was a child.  

Using her airplane that she precocious rebuilt with her dad, Keim and her aviator Heidi Hastings alert implicit the homes until they spot a idiosyncratic outside. Then they travel astir "low and slow" and driblet the bird.  (Mountain Mind Media/Alaska Gear Company via AP)

They task into the nearest municipality astir erstwhile a period successful the wintertime via a 90-minute snowmobile ride.

Luce said: "I’m 80 years aged now, truthful we marque less and less trips. The escapade has benignant of gone retired of it."

"She’s been a existent sweetheart, and she’s been a existent bully friend," helium added of Keim, who delivered them a 12-pound vertebrate this year. "It makes a large Thanksgiving."

Using her airplane that she precocious rebuilt with her dad, Keim and her aviator Heidi Hastings alert implicit the homes until they spot a idiosyncratic outside. Then they travel astir "low and slow" and driblet the bird. 

Keim relies heavy connected donations for the turkeys and purchases astir 20 astatine a time, which she leaves successful her motortruck until it’s clip to fly. 

"Luckily it’s acold successful Alaska, truthful I don’t person to interest astir freezers," she joked to the Associated Press. 

Keim said she wants to crook the Alaksa Turkey Bomb into a nonprofit. (Esther Keim via AP)

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"My imaginativeness with this is to marque it into a nonprofit enactment wherever I tin get backing and much enactment that I tin scope much parts of Alaska due to the fact that determination are truthful galore families that unrecorded rural and that unrecorded off-grid," Keim added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.