Palmerton’s NHS students volunteer on Thanksgiving

Palmerton students donated their time at the Bo Tkach Foundation’s Turkey Trot.

Every Thanksgiving morning, the Bo Tkach Foundation holds its annual Turkey Trot 5K walk/run in Palmerton (Carbon County). The Foundation is committed to its mission of creating awareness of mental health issues while providing essential funding for youth programs, scholarships, and otherwise inaccessible mental health screening and treatment. The Turkey Trot is one of the Foundation’s biggest fundraisers each year. Many Turkey Trot participants are from the local community, but this annual event also brings in a lot of people from out of town as well. The Turkey Trot raises funding for the Foundation, and canned food items are also collected at the event for a local pantry.

Many Palmerton Area Senior High School students volunteer their time each year to assist at the Turkey Trot. This year, two groups that volunteered their time were National Honor Society and the wrestling team.

“Student volunteers met in the park at 8:00 a.m. and were put into groups of two or three. They were assigned to various intersections in town to block traffic. They also cheered on the runners/walkers as they went by,” said NHS advisor and high school teacher Mrs. Jeana Baumgardt.

“Thank you to the Bo Tkach Foundation for all that they do for mental health awareness. I am proud of the wrestlers who volunteered or ran in this year’s Turkey Trot,” said varsity wrestling coach and high school teacher Mr. Justin Petersen.