30 Thanksgiving Turkeys Given Out By Bowa Construction

JOLIET, IL - On Tuesday afternoon, about 30 Joliet residents made a visit to the Forest Park Community Center for a warm and uplifting event that showed why Joliet is called the City of Champions. With the help of this year's event sponsor, Bowa Construction, Forest Park Community Center director Bettye Gavin handed out 30 butterball turkeys along with tote bags filled with canned foods and other fixings.

This is the sixth year that the Forest Park Community Center has organized the Thanksgiving event, said Gavin, a member of the Joliet City Council. Gavin said she was incredibly grateful that Bowa Construction, an African-American owned general contractor and construction management company, wanted to make sure the turkey donation tradition continued for another Thanksgiving Holiday.

The turkeys handed out Tuesday weighed about 14 pounds.

"We've been really blessed," Gavin told Joliet Patch. "Donors sometimes come and go. We were without a major donor, and Bowa Construction jumped in and saved us."

Gavin said the turkeys and the food boxes were distributed to Joliet families "that need a little extra. Some are Fairview (Public Housing) residents."

Also on hand to help with the distribution were members of the Joliet Police Department's Neighborhood Services unit as well as Michael Simelton, chief executive officer of the Joliet Housing Authority.

The Joliet Housing Authority has awarded a contract to Bowa Construction to be the prime contractor for the Liberty Meadows Phase III project.

The 2019 construction project will consist of 43 new units being built at the Joliet Housing Authority development on Joliet's east side.

Images via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor