To celebrate the 20th anniversary season of the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line, celebrities have donated drawings that will be available for auction at Butterball.com beginning Nov. 9.
Shaquille O'Neal, Lucy Liu, Dick Clark, Brooke Shields and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura are among the celebrities who have designed and donated their “Turkey Hands.” This type of art, commonly done by children in kindergarten, is created by tracing your hand with a crayon. The celebrity turkeys also are adorned with sequins, glitter, feathers and the star's autograph.
All proceeds from the auction will go to Feeding Children Better, a partnership between America's Second Harvest and ConAgra. The auction will conclude Nov. 20.
“We sent each one of these people a little kit with crayons, sequins and whatever. They drew around the hand and decorated it like a turkey — like kids do,” said Jean Schnelle, director at Butterball Turkey Talk-Line, Downers Grove, IL. “[These drawings] are a Thanksgiving tradition just like the Talk-Line is a tradition.”
Butterball.com was launched in 1995 to provide chefs with preparation advice, such as tips on thawing and grilling, as well as recipes. More than 5 million people have sought help via the site.
Butterball.com is an offshoot of the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line, a call center open yearly from Nov. 1 to Dec. 22. Nearly 50 people assist as many as 170,000 cooks-in-crisis each year. The call center has been operating since 1981.
“Back then, no one had an 800 number,” Schnelle said. “We didn't even spell anything out with the numbers, that's how new it was. No one was doing that yet. It was an experiment to see if people would seek information. They did.”
This is the first year Butterball has added a charity auction to its advice offerings.
“The auction is something special for our 20th year. We wanted to do something beneficial and this seemed appropriate,” Schnelle said.
