In the most remote areas of Alaska, you can’t rely on DoorDash to deliver Thanksgiving dinner (or any dinner, for that matter). But some residents who live far off the grid will still have turkeys this holiday, thanks to the Alaska Turkey Bomb.
For the third year in a row, a resident named Esther Keim is flying low and slow in a small plane over rural parts of south-central Alaska, dropping frozen turkeys to those who can’t just run to nature. supermarket.
Alaska consists largely of wilderness, of which only about 20% is accessible by road. In winter, many living in remote areas rely on small planes or snowmobiles to travel any distance, and frozen rivers can serve as makeshift roads.
Alaska Gear Company via AP
When Keim was growing up on a farm in Alaska, a family friend would drop off turkeys to her family and others in the neighborhood during the holidays. Other times the pilot delivered newspapers, sometimes with a pack of gum in them for Keim.
Her family moved to more urban Alaska almost 25 years ago, but still owns the farm. Using a small plane she rebuilt with her father, Keim launched her turkey delivery mission a few years ago after learning that a family lived on nearby land and had little for Thanksgiving dinner.
“They told me that a squirrel for dinner wasn’t spread very far between three people,” Keim recalled. “At that moment I thought… ‘I’m going to drop them a turkey.'”
She decided not to stop there. Her efforts have grown through word of mouth and social media posts. This year she is delivering 32 frozen turkeys to people who live in cabins where there are no roads year-round.
Mountain Mind Media/Alaska Gear Company via AP
All but two were delivered by Tuesday, with delivery plans for the last two birds thwarted by Alaska’s unpredictable weather.
Among the beneficiaries are Dave and Christina Luce, who live on the Yentna River, about 45 miles northwest of Anchorage. They have beautiful mountain views in all directions, including North America’s highest mountain, Denali, directly to the north. But in the winter it’s a 90 minute snowmobile ride to the nearest town, which they do about once a month.
“I’m 80 years old now, so we’re making fewer and fewer trips,” Dave Luce said. “The adventure has gone away a bit.”
They have known Keim since she was little. The 11-pound turkey she delivered will provide more than enough for them and a few neighbors.
“It’s a great Thanksgiving,” Dave Luce said. “She’s been a real sweetheart, and she’s been a really good friend.”
Keim delivers 30 to 40 turkeys annually, flying as far as 100 miles (161 kilometers) toward the Denali foothills from her base north of Anchorage.
Sometimes she enlists the help of a “turkey dropper” to drive along and throw the birds out. Other times, she’s the one dropping turkeys while her friend Heidi Hastings flies her own plane.
Esther Keim via AP
Keim buys about 20 turkeys at a time, using donations, mostly from people contacting her on Facebook. She wraps them in plastic garbage bags and lets them sit in the bed of her pickup until she can arrange a flight.
“Luckily it’s cold in Alaska, so I don’t have to worry about freezers,” she said.
She contacts families on social media to let them know of upcoming deliveries, and then they call the house for the homeowners to come out.
“We don’t drop the turkey until we see them come out of the house or cabin because if they don’t see it fall, they don’t know where to look,” she said.
Finding the turkey can be difficult, especially when there is deep snow. A turkey once went missing for five days before being found, but the only casualty so far was a lost ham, Keim said.
Keim prefers to drop the turkey on a frozen lake if possible so it is easy to find.
“In terms of precision and hitting our target, I’m definitely not the best target,” she joked. “I’ve gotten better, but I’ve never hit a house, a building, a person or a dog.”
Her reward is the wonderful response she receives from families, some of whom film her dropping the turkeys and send her videos and text messages expressing her appreciation.
“They’re just so excited that we’re throwing these things out of the plane,” Keim said.
Ultimately, she hopes to create a nonprofit to raise more donations and reach people in a larger part of the state. And it doesn’t have to stop at turkeys.
“There are so many children in the villages,” she said. “It would be cool to maybe add a stuffed animal or something they can hold.”
