What did you do on your last birthday? Well, if you are Academy Award winning actor and Wild Turkey Bourbon’s Creative Director Matthew McConaughey you celebrate by helping to hand out 4,500 turkeys. That’s right, McConaughey along with Wild Turkey Bourbon gave out free Thanksgiving turkeys to every resident of the distilleries hometown of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.
This November 4th, McConaughey, celebrated his 48th birthday by making a surprise appearance at the Wild Turkey Distillery as Master Distillers Jimmy and Eddie Russell and an army of more than 250 volunteers and distillery workers set out to say thanks to the small town that has been home to the iconic bourbon distillery for more than a century.
Starting bright and early at 7:30am, McConaughey got the crowd excited for a day of service, saying, “We believe, in our family, that the more you’re thankful for, the more you’re going to create in your life to be thankful for. So thank you for being here. Let’s go make some people happy!”
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“In one of our very first conversations, Master Distillers Jimmy and Eddie Russell told me that the town of Lawrenceburg is what keeps the Wild Turkey family running,” said McConaughey, Creative Director of Wild Turkey. “The support system in this community is amazing – in one form or another, everyone has some kind of relationship with Wild Turkey – and that’s why we were so grateful to have the resources to give back and say thanks to Lawrenceburg residents. We thought, let’s give everyone a turkey, one less thing for them to worry about this season.”
Following the pep speech, McConaughey and the volunteers set out in cars and buses with more than 60,000 pounds of turkey to canvas Lawrenceburg’s six square miles. Crews blanketed each neighborhood on foot from sun up until sun down, going door to door to drop off the frozen birds, delighting everyone along the way. Scores of residents opened their doors to find McConaughey on their porches, which elicited the kind of excitement you might expect when being surprised by an Oscar winner carrying a turkey.
“Lawrenceburg has been our home for generations, and the people who live here support our passion for making great whiskey every day,” said Wild Turkey Master Distiller Jimmy Russell. “We wanted to say thanks to Lawrenceburg this Thanksgiving and to encourage people around the country to do what they can to assure no one goes hungry this holiday.”
What a wonderful gesture. Well done.
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