There’s no arguing that this year has been quite the change for people all over the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tracy Lawrence’s Annual Turkey Fry and Concert is no exception to that change. Social distancing, temperature checks, masks, and spanning the footprint of where they put the fryers in the parking lot of the Nashville Rescue Mission are only a few of the changes that had to be made in order to make sure everything could happen. With COVID-19 protocols in place, the Nashville Rescue Mission is able to be center stage once again for an event that Tracy Lawrence has hosted for the last 15 years.
Mission: Possible Turkey Fry has raised over $600,000 for the Nashville Rescue Mission and fried over 6,400 turkeys for the men, women, and children they serve each day.
Tracy was also honored with an official day of recognition, declaring November 24th as “Tracy Lawrence Day.” The honor bestowed by Governor Bill Lee and presented to Tracy by Chris Young, is a testament to Tracy’s longstanding commitment to helping the homeless community of middle Tennessee and beyond thru this philanthropic endeavor.
For the first time this year, the concert portion was live streamed for free on TalkShop.live from Nashville’s Wildhorse Saloon, which is looking like it might be a permanent addition to the live event moving forward.
“We’ll be doing a lot more live stuff including events like this that have an internet element from now on,” said Tracy.
This year’s concert featured special performances from Tim McGraw, Chris Young, Cole Swindell, John Rich, Mitchell Tenpenny, David Tolliver, and more. They also did an online auction with all proceeds aiding Mission: Possible’s efforts in feeding the homeless.
The online auction element of the event is another piece that is new. Normally they would have a live auction which always proves to be quite exciting especially when random people show up to lend their presence to the event. Take last year for instance. Randy Travis showed up and on the spot offered an auction item of dinner with him and his wife Mary to help raise more money for the event.
“There’s something really spontaneous about having the live auction with an auctioneer and everything that is always special when it happens,” said Tracy. “Having an online element for people who aren’t able to be there is definitely something that we will be doing from now on.”
The online auction will be available until December 1st. Visit Turkeyfry.org for more information on the event, auction, and how you can help/donate.
Story By: Catrina Engelby
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