Tracy Lawrence’s Mission: Possible Turkey Fry & Benefit Raises $355K
Pictured (L-R): Chris Cagle, Gretchen Wilson, Tracy Lawrence, Glenn Cranfield (Nashville Rescue Mission), Eric Paslay and Halfway to Hazard. Photo: Logan Vollmers
Tracy Lawrence celebrated the 20th anniversary of his Mission:Possible Turkey Fry and Benefit Concert last week, raising $355,000 to help support families and individuals facing food insecurity.
Fans gathered at Luke Combs’ Category 10 in Nashville for the benefit concert, with performances by Lawrence, Gretchen Wilson, Chris Cagle, Eric Paslay and Halfway to Hazard. New this year, the show hosted a canned food drive on behalf of Second Harvest Food Bank to help support families and individuals facing food insecurity, with one participant taking home a signed guitar from the food drive raffle.
The morning of prep led to panic after a refrigerated truck was found broken, causing 650 turkeys to spoil out of the 3,600 total allotment. Lawrence reached out to social media, news outlets, artists and celebrities asking for donations to replenish the stock in order to reach their goal of feeding 36,000 people throughout Middle Tennessee, and the result was truly a miracle, ending in over 2,400 turkeys donated, making the new total 5,350 cooked and frozen distributed turkeys.
“I cannot imagine a better 20th anniversary for the Mission:Possible Turkey Fry and Concert,” says Lawrence. “What started as a day of uncertainty turned into a day of our community coming together in a way I couldn’t have imagined. Between the fry itself and the benefit concert with my friends Gretchen, Chris, Eric and Halfway to Hazard, I was blown away once again by the kindness of our neighbors.”
The event saw a record-breaking amount of money raised for Mission:Possible, totaling $355,000 from ticket sales, silent auction items, artist donations and more, with a check presented to Nashville Rescue Mission for $250,000. In addition to the artist donations from the concert, artists and celebrities came out to support the turkey fry earlier in the day, with appearances from Jamey Johnson, Tucker Wetmore, Charles Esten, Dustin Lynch, Meghan Patrick, John Crist, Rodney Atkins, Clint Black, Rhett Akins, Frank Ray and more. Additional turkeys were also donated from artists like Steve Wariner, Atkins, Black, Akins, Esten, and more.
