Evan Orday, 8, unloads a box of food for donation to the Lighthouse Foundation Tuesday with his brothers Grant, 11, (right) and Seth, 13.

MIDDLESEX TWP — Grant Ordy has had 100 turkeys on his mind for seven years

At the age of 5, he realized the deeper message behind the Mickey Mouse Christmas show he watched on television.

“On Thanksgiving, they didn't have anything to eat,” said Grant, a Butler Area Middle School sixth-grader, who is now 11. “I thought it would be nice if I started getting turkeys so people could have something to eat on Thanksgiving.”

In that moment, his parents Bob and Tammy Ordy of Butler Township saw an opportunity to teach their children the value of charity, especially around the holidays.

For the past seven years, the Ordy family, including their two other sons Seth, 13, and Evan, 8, have made a Thanksgiving donation to The Lighthouse Foundation, a Christian outreach organization meeting the needs of impoverished people and families in northern Allegheny and Butler counties, a part of their holiday tradition.

Since that time, Grant strove to reach 100 turkeys collected — a goal that kept him pushing every year, Grant said.

This year, the family unloaded the largest amount of donations they have ever received: 166 turkeys, 11 hams, $1,050 in monetary donations and about $600 in grocery items, said Bob Ordy.

Tgis is an excerpt from a story appearing in Friday's Butler Eagle.