How to Kill a Good Project, II

When it comes to physical labor for a service project, the 80/20 rule too often applies. (20% of the club members do 80% of the work.) Some clubs believe the 80/20 rule is optimistic.

McCormick had a project for years of frying Thanksgiving turkeys. This involves storing, cleaning, moving, thawing and frying 125 turkeys. Each turkey weighs between 15 and 20 pounds frozen. Fifteen deep friers are utilized, which create their own safety concerns.

On one particular year, Abbie Caywood's husband Don "Charlie" Caywood was in charge of the event. He picked up the frozen turkeys and transfered them to a van. He unloaded them at the fry site at Hickory Knob State Park. Turkeys on a pallet will thaw from the outside in. The inside turkeys were not thawed, and the distribution date was quickly approaching. The club (remember 80/20) transfered them to five individual homes for thawing in the bathtub. Of course, they then had to be returned to the fry site.

Charlie Caywood figured that he moved 67,000 pounds of turkeys from someplace to someplace during the year that he was Event Chairman. I think that is 33.5 tons. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Needless to say, McCormick no longer does the turkey fry as a fundraiser. Greenville Breakfast still does fried turkeys. Maybe they have conquered the 80/20 rule.