MOSES LAKE - As of Saturday afternoon, Columbia Basin residents had donated about 180 turkeys and more than $8,000 to Samaritan Healthcare's turkey and canned food drive, and there was still half of Saturday to go.

Samaritan employees volunteered their time Thursday, Friday and Saturday, collecting donations of turkeys, non-perishable food and money at the Moses Lake Safeway for donation to the Moses Lake and Warden food banks.

Hospital volunteers and their families collected $8,386 Thursday and Friday, said Kevin Dustin, one of the organizers. That's ahead of the 2011 pace, he said. Residents had donated 180 turkeys to the turkey drive as of 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Dustin said.

Complete results will be published in Tuesday's Columbia Basin Herald.

Hospital employees have been conducting a Thanksgiving turkey drive since 2001. Kris Hendrickson and her daughters Sammy, Hunter and Morgan were manning the shopping carts in the foyer at Safeway on Saturday afternoon. Mom works at the hospital and asked her daughters for their assistance, "and they were more than happy to help," she said.

"If we can help others out," Kris Hendrickson said.

"We can show humanity is still good," Sammy Hendrickson said.

"It's still alive and well," Kris said.

The event began as a turkey drive only, but some people who wanted to help were caught turkey less, so they donated cash, said Connie Ophekens, community relations specialist for the hospital. Over time the project became a turkey-canned-food-money drive.

The turkeys are distributed for Thanksgiving, and the money is used to buy additional food.