It takes a community conscious real estate company, its untiring agents, their clients, caring corporate sponsors and regular citizens to bring smiles to the needy of the village during the holidays.

That’s the message drawn from last week’s 12th Annual “Turkey-A-Thon” conducted by Troop Real Estate, Inc. throughout Ventura County.

The event raised over $55,000 from these sources, enabling the Troop family and its affiliates to distribute turkeys and Thanksgiving dinner trimmings to a record 22,000 people representing over 2,750 families, reports Troop Agent Alex Gandel, event chairman. The “Turkey-A-Thon” was held in cooperation with Care & Share/The Salvation Army, Food Share, Manna, and the Moorpark Food Pantry.

“This is an event whose growth has been driven by the support of the Troop family of agents and affiliates, as well as the generosity of outside volunteers plus additional community financial support from local businesses and individuals. As the need for our assistance throughout the community has increased, all of this kindness and energy has been harnessed to provide meals for those in need, and it continues to illustrate the fact that inside of everyone lies a gentle heart that when called upon is there for the giving,” Gandel said.

The Troop “Turkey-A-Thon” food distributions were held in Simi Valley, Conejo Valley, Moorpark, and in the West County communities of Ventura, Ojai, Santa Paula, and Fillmore. Food was distributed to Help of Ojai in Ojai and the Boys and Girls Club in Santa Paula and Fillmore.

As a long line of food recipients encircled Troop’s offices in Simi Valley one Troop agent reported that an elderly lady who arrived at the front of the line at 7 a.m. stated that it was “the only healthy meal she gets during the year.”

Typical of the special outreach of the “Turkey-A-Thon”, another Troop agent assisted care taker Anna Munoz of Simi Valley and her daughter, Helen, 12, who picked up Thanksgiving groceries for an elderly local woman.

Commenting on the event, company President Brian Troop said: “The effort of our volunteers was amazing because it was difficult to get sponsors and donors since so many are unemployed today. But it all came together because our agents and sponsors stepped up.”

In West County, Troop Regional Manager Bob Harrison added that Food Share had so many needy this year they had to conduct a drawing. “We also provided an additional 300 military meals this year and fed a record of over 6,000 people this year in West County alone,” Harrison said.

Troop’s “Turkey-A-Thon”, which has now fed over 135,000 for Thanksgiving during its 12-year run, attracted a distinguished list of corporate sponsors this year. They included Simi Valley Hospital; First Automotive Group of Simi Valley; William L. Morris Chevrolet, Simi Valley; Kirby Auto Group, Ventura and Simi Valley; Infiniti of Thousand Oaks; Bunnin GM Superstore, Ventura/Oxnard; Simi Valley Buick/GMC; TRC Medical, Simi Valley; the Simi Sunset Rotary Club; Simi Hills Golf Course Men’s Club; Simi Valley Police Officers Association, the Elks Club of Ventura, and Santa Paula Rotarians. Additionally, traditional event sponsors were All Valley Escrow, CFC Mortgage Bankers, and Consumers Title Company of Ventura County.