Black Friday sales and shopping mall mayhem can bring out the worst in people around the holidays, but every once in a while someone comes along and makes a selfless gesture that truly warms the heart. That’s precisely what the Laviolette Family and LRL Construction have quietly been up to the last three years without ever asking for anything in return. ?Last year the company donated 100 turkeys to the Food Bank so people could have a holiday meal, said LRL Office Manager Mary Schmitz. This year LRL donated 200 turkeys, 200 10-pound bags of potatoes and another 200 cans of food to go along with it like green beans and corn.

I think the company does it simply because it’s a good thing to do, Schmitz added with a giggle.

To get a more tangible idea of just how much food that is, it’s somewhere in the ballpark of 200 holiday boxes which equal about 800 meals. Finanacially, it’s no small task either.

At Safeway a Butterball turkey is currently 1.49 per pound. If the average turkey is 14 pounds, the coat of the turkey along is right around $4,172, not including the canned food or potatoes.

We’ve done this a few times before, but this is the first time anyone has ever asked to write about it, said LRL Owner Dan Laviolette.

When asked what his motivation was to give so generously to the Tillamook County Food Banks, Laviolette’s answer was quick and to the point.

There’s a lot of people that don’t get a chance go have a good hot meal, Laviolette explained. This is a great chance for me and my wife and kids to to reach out and help. Especially at Thanksgiving.

If we can just warm up a few people’s lives even if we don’t know them, it’s good enough for us.