Giving back before giving thanks: 30th Annual Turkey Trot

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - Thanksgiving morning thousands of people laced up their shoes and took to Riverside Drive for the 30th annual Turkey Day 5K.

Some of the event details changed in the 30th rendition of the holiday tradition, such as a new starting location and registration hub, but the purpose and spirit of the event stayed the same.

“A lot of families like to come and give back before they give thanks,” said Robyn Oglesby. Oglesby serves as the Evansville Goodwill Community Relations Director and has worked on the run for three years.

The proceeds from the run go back to help the less known missions of the Evansville Goodwill: to help those who are disabled or disadvantaged find work and become self-sufficient.

“Basically the way everything works is our donations help to put inventory in our stores and we sell those and the proceeds from our stores actually go back into our programs as well," said Oglesby. "So this special event is a big fundraiser to help our programs.”

That's what Graham and Genny Caudill are here to do.

“1 for the charity and also just to do something with my kiddo," said Genny Caudill.

“Graham ran track over at Good Shepherd Catholic School and I used to run," Caudill said. "I’ve been out of it for a couple of years because of an injury but we’re trying to get back into it. So we’re hoping to have a good time together.”

The mother and son decided to take this year to create a new tradition, dressed as a Pilgrim and a Turkey.

“I’m all about costumes whenever I can dress up, I do it. Sometimes he takes a little coaxing but you know we thought it would be fun," said Caudill. "I mean it’s Thanksgiving. We’re getting out of bed at 5:30 in the morning. We wanted to have something to look forward to and just make the event a little more fun.”

Goodwill officials said that they expected almost 3,000 runners to come out this year.

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