- Will you consider this?

For over five decades, this community has gone all in to share a fun-filled weekend.

We're talking turkey.

Stay right here.

(upbeat music) It started because a group of people saw the need for a place for all ages to keep their cool.

To fill us in on the history of the Tremont Turkey Festival, Drew Gierich, this year's Gobble 'til You Wobble, general chairman, but he's general chairperson 'cause your wife is also with you.

- Yep, my wife Rachel and I will be the general chairmen of the 2023 Tremont Turkey Festival.

- And this is the 57th?

- This is the 57th Tremont Turkey Festival.

The festival began in 1966 with aspirations to develop a swimming pool, which still resides at the Tremont Community Park.

- Right, and I mean, you have all kinds of things going on, but the pool itself now, all of the money raised over the years didn't just go for the pool and the upkeep, although you do have a fund specifically for that, is that correct?

- That is correct, yep.

So since 1966, there have been over $2 million that have been poured back into the community.

So beyond the Tremont community pool, there are different organizations such as the Lions Club, AEDs for the Tremont school nurse.

We've got the Roboteers program.

So there are a lot of different organizations that are benefiting from the funds raised from the festival.

- That's great.

Now, and so you moved to Tremont when you were, you said, six years old, and so this has been part of your life all this time.

- Yep, I've been involved with the festival since early 1990s.

It started with helping out, attending and enjoying the festival as a young kid, helping my mom as she volunteered at the festival.

And then it led into, you know, just getting into school, and you have community service hour requirements, and that was a way to easily knock those requirements out as volunteering at the festival as a high schooler.

And then now we've taken, my wife and I have taken a leadership role, and it's a four-year leadership track where you progress through leading the food line and then ultimately becoming the general chairman of the festival.

- Wow, the food line.

Well, so for anybody who has maybe been behind a bush or under a rock or something, the Tremont Turkey Festival is in June every year.

Is it the second week of June generally, the second weekend of June?

- It's always the weekend before Father's Day.

- Okay.

- So, yep.

Typically the second weekend in June.

- All right.

And then, so the food line, I mean, there's turkey, of course.

And what else?

The strawberry shortcake's good.

- Yep, so we've got turkey sandwiches, turkey hot wings, turkey drummies, turkey hotdogs.

I'm sensing a common theme here.

We're using the word turkey a lot, but, yeah, after you enjoy your main dish, we definitely have strawberry shortcake.

We've got strawberry smoothies.

You can go to our country store and also enjoy a lemonade shakeup as well.

- Okay, they don't put any turkey juice in that or anything?

- No turkey juice, but I think there's plenty of sugar, yeah.

- (laughs) All right, but now the turkey, I mean, it's so good and so juicy.

How much turkey do you make every year, and what's the whole process?

- Yep, I will refrain from sharing our secret ingredients that go into the turkey, but you're spot on.

It is extremely delicious.

There are a lot of visitors that come enjoy the turkey each year.

We typically range from 1,500 to 1,600 turkeys in total that are cooked for the festival.

- And so how many pounds, what's the average, I mean?

- We target 22-pound turkeys.

I can't do the math in my head, but that's a lot of turkey.

- That's a lot of turkey meat, yes.

- Yep, as far as the preparation, we do have a secret injection that goes into the turkey to keep it fresh and moist so that it tastes as delicious as we all have grown accustomed to.

- Right.

And because you were the chairman of that committee, when do you do that?

When do you start cooking all those turkeys?

- Yep, so the preparation starts on Thursday of the festival, but we have a crew that we call the barbecue team.

They start very early in the morning around 4:00 AM, 5:00 AM, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

There's different quantities for each day.

Obviously, Saturday is our heaviest sales day, but the process to cook turkeys, we can cook 80, sometimes 80 down to 64 at a time, and it takes about three hours in a rotisserie-style smoker to cook the turkey.

- And those were especially built for the Tremont Turkey Festival?

You had some engineers figure that out?

- Yes, those are commercial-graded rotisserie smokers.

I don't know if there are some that might exist at other festivals.

I don't think there's another turkey festival around per se.

So I don't know if they were especially customized for us, but we did get those commercially purchased.

- Okay, Wow.

And where do you store them then?

- That's a good question.

I'm not sure where those- - They're stored somewhere.

- I just know they're at the park when they need to be to, to get ready for the festival, and then they disappear.

- And that's all that counts, that's right.

All right, so that is, you said you had a four-year kind of learning curve.

You start out, that seems to me like that might be the hardest job of everything.

- The food line.

- Yes.

- Yes, so the food line, you're the heartbeat of the festival.

You're in charge of coordinating with all the other various chairs, such as country store, strawberry shortcake, and we have the turkey express operation.

That is a drive-thru.

- At the high school.

- At the high school.

- And that was added when?

Just within maybe the past 10 years or something?

- Yes, so within the last decade or so.

And that's been a huge improvement to the festival.

They sell, I think, over 10,000 sandwiches out of the drive-thru operation each year.

But you're spot on.

The food chairman, they have to order all of the paper products.

They're coordinating all of the volunteers on Friday.

A lot of the community churches are very gracious enough to cover our Saturday and Sunday shifts.

But that takes a huge burden off of the chairmans.

We're extremely thankful that they're willing to come and step up.

- Right, it really truly is a community undertaking.

- It is, yeah, there's thousands of volunteers.

Some are in their first year of helping out.

Some are probably in their 30, 40th year of helping out.

So it's really a way to really network and bring the community together.

You know, just get to know other people within the community from a more personal level and really, you know, like I said, pour those funds back into improving the community for a better place to visit or a better place to live.

- Yeah, exactly.

Well, and then I was looking at, yes, you have a committee, but you have all different kinds of subcommittee.

There's a lot of subcommittees here.

There's a lot of important jobs.

- Yes, so throughout the festival, there's a lot of events that take place, such as a merchant's day on Thursday evening.

Saturday, we have a bags tournament.

You've got the horseshoe tournament.

We do bed races.

There's just so many different things, that it would be too difficult for one person to really manage, or even a handful of people.

So that's where we're really thankful that leaders throughout the community have stepped up to take on those chair opportunities and really lead those events.

- Do they ever want, do they ever get stuck in one that that's what they like, and they're really good at it, and so you say, "Yeah, go ahead and just stay right there and keep doing what you're doing."

- There are times where people wanna get involved in the community, and there might only be one opening, so they might take that on for maybe a couple years or so, but as things open up, that would be more appealing to them.

We do consider shuffling folks around.

If somebody has done it for a long time and maybe they're ready to step out and take a lesser role, they're always actively helping us recruit who might be a good fit to backfill them.

- Now you have great big tents around the properties, and you have rides, you have rides for the kids.

Oh, well, adults too, I suppose.

Yeah, but mostly the kids love them.

- Yep, so the carnival rides, those began on Thursday evening, and we have an armband night where for $20 you can purchase a wristband that will allow you unlimited rides that evening.

And that runs from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM on Thursday.

We also do the arm bands on Sunday.

Sunday's when the festival will conclude.

But the armbands will typically be good for 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM in there, once we kind of run out of food and we start shutting down the festival.

- And speaking of running out of food, so you have it down to a pretty good system.

Somebody's done all the numbers, they've done all of the work out there, but how often do you run out of food or is that a problem?

- Yeah, so with this being the 57th festival, we do have a lot of information from historical years that really allow us to zone in to ordering a close quantity to what we think is gonna be reasonable.

Obviously, the weather comes into play quite often too.

So we always, we pray for no rain, and we hope that we have great weather throughout the weekend.

But as far as, we have a saying, the early bird gets the turkey.

So we do encourage folks to show up earlier to get dinner, ensure that they have a sandwich or turkey hot wings.

We start serving at 11:00 AM on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

We typically, on Friday and Saturday, we try to ensure that there's gonna be food till 7:00 or 8:00 PM at a minimum.

But sometimes there are unknowns with weather, and sometimes there are unknowns with how big the crowds are gonna be.

On Sunday- - If it's beautiful weather, you'll probably have bigger crowds, obviously.

- That's what we, and we have had that the last couple of years.

So we're hoping for the same in 2023.

On Sunday, we will be open at 11:00 AM again, and we hope to have food until 2:00 PM.

Friday and Saturday is when we have our turkey express drive-thru, and their hours are 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and then they'll be open 3:30 to 6:00 PM both of those days.

- Okay, well, I have navigated my way through because you have a lot of different crafts and antiques and everything too.

I've navigated my way and gone to the tent and everything.

I gotta say I really do like that drive-thru at the high school, and it's still only at the high school, right?

- It is at the high school only.

It's crowded both days, but I think it really is convenient on Friday when folks are still working.

They might take a lunch break and come drive through the high school really quick and then come back to the park later that evening to enjoy rides and maybe sit down with their family.

We do allow bulk orders too.

So there's a bulk order form.

- Is that something fairly new?

I didn't know about that.

- Within the last few years, yes.

So we do have to run a supply of turkey and food from the park up to the high school.

So if a big order comes through, it can kind of set us back or wipe us out, which is a good problem to have.

- (laughs) Right.

- But now with the order form, we're really able to manage the supply and anticipate when we might get some of those large volume orders.

- All right, and that's mostly the people know, and they're feeding people back at the office, right?

Generally.

- Yep, it's the Tremont Turkey Festival.

Those sandwiches are really delicious.

I'm gonna go get 60 sandwiches for somebody at my work office, and I'm gonna fill out this order form, and they're gonna be ready for me to go pick up and take 'em right back.

- Wow, really?

- So there are orders that are that large, there have been?

- There are, I think we have some that are over a hundred.

- Holy cow.

- Yeah.

- Man, man.

Okay, so you haven't made a whole lot of changes to things over the years.

Again, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

But you have Miss Tremont Turkey Festival, a pageant every year.

And it used to be on Thursday.

I judged it a few times, and Laura Steffy, good friend who gave me your information, which was very nice.

She is the one who kind of got me to know what's going on with the pageant, but you did move it because?

There's an obvious reason.

- Yeah, so we used to have the Miss Tremont Pageant on Thursday evening to kind of kick off the festival, but that was also the same evening that we would call our buddy nights, which would be kind of a two-for-one-price carnival rides.

And the pageant was really competing with the carnival opportunity.

And we heard from folks that they really would like to be able to attend both, which was great feedback.

So, as a result, we have decided to move the Miss Tremont Pageant to the Sunday prior, which this year will be on June 4th.

- Well, and in that way, the queen can be at all of the events and make her appearances and work the crowd.

- That's that's absolutely correct, yep.

So most of the pageant contestants will walk around the festival in their gown and their sashes, and it's really just a joy seeing people, you know, have them present, walk around.

- Well, it really is, and the gym at the high school was always so full of fans of all of the contestants.

So now let's go over this schedule then.

So Friday is mostly what?

- Friday, that's when, like I said, the turkey express will be available, 11:00 to 1:00 and then 3:30 to 6:00.

The food line, strawberry shortcake and the country store will be operating around 11:00 AM and available all the way, all day, 9:00 to 10:00 PM.

We will have entertainments, there will be bands playing in the evening, which we're still working through.

- [Christine] At the tents.

- At the, yep, at the basketball court, there'll be a tent there.

- [Christine] Oh, okay.

- So that will pretty much consume Friday.

- All right, and then what happens Saturday, is that the bed races?

- Yes.

- Or do I have that on here?

Do I have, you have the list Saturday, you have it.

Well, the antique and craft tent is open all day Friday, right?

- Yep.

- And then all day Saturday and probably all day Sunday.

- That's correct, yep.

And then on Saturday, like you mentioned, we'll have a bags tournament.

The horseshoe tournament will start at 9:00 AM on Saturday.

- [Christine] And that's at the park.

- That's right, at the park.

And that's been, I think occurring for 40-plus years.

So that's been a great tradition to the festival.

The bed races.

We'll have a strawberry shortcake eating contest as well.

I will not be participating in that.

- Have you before?

- I have not done the strawberry shortcake eating contest.

The chairmen will be participating in the bed races.

- [Christine] All right.

- So we might be sore with maybe some muscle pulls or something later that evening, but it's always a great time.

- And your kids are helping out too.

It's a whole family affair for you and for so many other families in Tremont, right?

- Yep, so we have, Rachel and I have four children ranging from age 12 down to age 4.

So the first year we did the leadership track, we had an infant.

She was only three months old.

So this has really been part of every year of her life.

- Her life.

- Absolutely.

But, they love coming up, running around with their friends, and they help us out quite a bit too.

They like being runners where our order takers will take a customer order, and then they're kind of the gofers or the runners that will go get the supplies to fulfill that order.

But they really love doing that.

- Well, that's the best way to bring up and groom volunteers.

They are learning really from cradle up to participate and to be part of the community.

You must be really proud of that.

- We are really proud, and a lot of times, we sit down and we talk about what's the purpose behind, you know, why are we- - [Christine] Volunteering.

- Exactly, what's the purpose behind the festival, and why are we volunteering?

And then like we talked about in the beginning too, there's just a lot of programs that they will probably be a part of someday that are getting funds poured into them from the festival and from the Tremont Betterment Association.

So it's pretty easy and a pretty quick conversation to connect the purpose.

And I think they truly understand the importance.

- Which is really awesome.

And you said your mom was a home ec teacher at the high school, probably, and so she got you involved, and from there, it just kind of kept snowballing, right?

- Yeah, so she was the home ec teacher at Green Valley High School.

- Oh, Green Valley, okay.

- Before they consolidated into Midwest Central.

Now she's at Tazewell County Education for employment.

But same thing, she had a network of friends.

We grew up in town in Tremont, and, you know, you just kind of reach out to your network and see if people would be willing to volunteer.

And it's a good way to get to know others and really grow your network.

And that happened in early 1990s, and I remember being up there just like my kids are now today, just running around and helping out where I could.

- Now when the committee, do you decide on where the profits will go?

I mean, it costs a lot of money to put this on in the first place, but then do you vote on it as a committee?

Do organizations come to you and request some of the profits?

- Yep, so this is the 57th year for the festival.

It started in 1966.

- The first one was for the swimming pool in Tremont Park.

- Yep, so in 1976, so 10 years later, that's when the Tremont Betterment Association was formed.

And that comprises of current and past general chairmen, and they act as a steering committee that will set policies for the festival budgets.

But the most beneficial is then, where did the disbursements go throughout the community?

So there is a process each year where there is a request form where any individual is able to go into this request form, and just really process the submission of saying, "Hey, this organization is requesting some money, and then this is the benefit for the community."

Actually, coming up here soon, so March of each year is when the Tremont Betterment Association will have their disbursement meeting.

They will review all of those requests.

- And that's from last year's funding, funds.

- From funds, yep.

So March of '23 for the 2022 festival.

And that's where they'll vote on deciding whether or not to approve or proceed with the disbursements.

- What is your time commitment?

You and Rachel, you have four children and everything, what is your time commitment when you're the general chairman of an event that's this huge?

- Yeah, so we do spend a little more time away from our children the week of the turkey festival.

So starting Wednesday, Wednesday and Thursday is when we really start setting up the operation and the food line and the park, getting it ready for the festival, that's really gonna pick up on Friday through Sunday.

So there's a lot of help from Grandma, Grandpa, the grandparents.

Also, you know, friends of ours are always willing to help out too, and, you know, take them with them, take our children with them for a little bit.

- Which is nice, yeah.

And then do you get to enjoy yourself at all during, I mean, you've been on this four year track.

Have you been able to have any fun, and maybe this year's the one year that you're gonna be able to kick your feet up at the end of Sunday?

- This year will be a little unique because it is our final year.

But we will still be actively involved with the Tremont Betterment Association, moving forward.

We do enjoy Thursday evening with our kids on the armband night for the festival rides.

But it's kind of a, I would say it's a different kind of enjoy.

So while we're not there, you know, just sitting at a picnic table and having dinner with friends, we're back there managing the operation, but still having a lot of conversations.

And I would say it's not all just sit down and work.

We are enjoying ourselves.

- Right, right.

Well, and you're putting out brush fires.

- That's right, yep.

So anything that, you know, may come up with a supply shortage or maybe an electrical circuit tripped, I mean, we'll get those phone calls, and we don't have the answers or are able to solve everything, but we typically have the contact pretty quickly that can help us out.

- Well a lot has changed since 1966 'cause now you have cell phones.

They must have had walkie talkies for all kinds of years or whatever to put out those brush fires.

- I'm not sure what they had in 1966, but I have no doubt that whatever they used as a tool at that time probably worked great.

- So how many people do you expect to come through?

Let's say you have perfect weather this year, and we're praying for it.

How many people will come through?

- So we don't have an exact count, but we have heard, we have had estimates around 35,000 people that will attend the festival annually.

- And what's the population of Tremont?

- On the sign when you drive into Tremont it says 2,100.

- [Christine] Oh, boy.

- But we have some subdivisions that feed in.

So, you know, around the area there, I would guess 3,000, 4,000 individuals.

- So that's welcoming a lot of people into town.

- There are a lot of folks that attend the festival, whether it be from surrounding neighborhoods, such as Mackinac, Pekin, East Peoria, Peoria, I have no doubt that people travel great lengths to come and enjoy the festival to.

- And to get that turkey I'm telling you, it really is good.

Not sure what that secret ingredient is, but maybe I have to join the committee some time to learn.

Just teasing.

Okay, so out of all of these years that you've been participating, well, enjoying beforehand as a young child, what's your favorite part of the festival?

- Well that's a great question 'cause I really.

- [Christine] You like it all?

- Our theme this year is Gobble 'til You Wobble.

- [Christine] I didn't ever even knew you had a theme.

How about it?

Yeah.

- Gobble 'til You Wobble, and really what that represents is the gobble part is eating all the delicious food, and then the wobble is obviously then going to enjoy the carnival rides, maybe dancing at the entertainment tent.

But it's hard to pick just one thing.

I really just enjoy the entire festival.

- All right, yeah.

Well, and there is considerable walking, but that's good.

So you can eat and walk some of those calories off, right?

- That's right, that's right.

And then if parking is tight, you can also park up at the high school, and we do have a park and ride operation.

- [Christine] A shuttle.

- That will shuttle to and from, or to and back from the park.

But there is quite a bit of walking, I would say, around the festival grounds themselves.

- Yeah, well you close off Main Street, right?

You isn't that Route 9.

- Route 9 is open.

- Oh, okay.

- So that leads from the interstate to the high school.

- [Christine] But the other side streets are closed off.

- Sampson Street, which runs north and south right by Pinkies there in Tremont, that does get closed down.

- Mm-hmm.

But, everybody, I mean, you have all these committees, and everybody is very enthusiastic about, out of 2,100 people, however, that they all join in roll up their sleeves and get to work and put on a fun weekend.

- Some say the festival runs itself 'cause a lot of great people have been doing their specific chair, their specific operation for so many years.

As the chairman, as the leadership team, we're really there to help out and put out fires, as you alluded to earlier.

But there's just so many great people that really make this festival go as smoothly as it does year in and year out.

- All right, so not a whole lot of time.

People who need to check out what the schedule of events is, where do they go?

- They can go to turkeyfestival.com.

So we do have a website that will provide the chair names, the schedules, the entertainment, and some of the sporting events that will be occurring throughout the festival.

We also have a Facebook page on social media, Tremont Turkey Festival, if you'd like to like that page.

There's regular updates on there as well.

- Awesome, great.

You guys are on top of it, good for you.

Well, thanks for coming in.

- [Drew] Thanks for having me.

- Nice to meet you, and I hope you will all get out to the Tremont Turkey Festival.

It's June 9th, 10th and 11th this year.

And thanks for joining us.

Have a safe and healthy evening.

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