Updated Nov. 19, 4:08 p.m. —
Have a camera and live in Citrus Heights? If so, then one local neighborhood group says you can enter their 9th annual “Turkey Shoot” contest for a chance to win a frozen Thanksgiving turkey to take home.
Although the term can refer to hunting turkeys, this local “shoot” involves residents shooting photos of the feathered fowls and competing for who can take the best photo — and anyone in Citrus Heights can submit a picture.
“We’ve been doing it for years because there’s so many turkeys in our area,” said Jayna Karpinski-Costa, president of the Sylvan Old Auburn Ranch (SOAR) neighborhood association. “We love our wild turkeys and want to celebrate them in the month of November.”
The neighborhood president said she considers the wild turkeys that regularly roam her area to be a “neighborhood asset,” rather than a nuisance. Residents who’ve complained in the past about the turkeys “soon found out they’re in the minority,” Karpinski-Costa said, commenting that most residents in her area like the turkeys.
[See contest flier: click here]
Several years ago she said the City even installed a “Turkey Crossing” sign on Highland Avenue near Mariposa Avenue, where a photo entry was submitted one year of a group of turkeys crossing in front of the sign. “Believe it or not the turkeys actually cross at the sign,” she said with a chuckle.
Although the annual contest is open to any resident of the city, Karpinski-Costa said the turkey photo must have been taken within the boundaries of her neighborhood association. SOAR is one of 11 different neighborhood associations that make up Citrus Heights and is bounded by Sylvan Road on the west, Old Auburn Road in the north, Sunrise Boulevard as its eastern boundary, and Greenback Lane in the south.
>>See a map of the neighborhood boundaries and learn more about Citrus Heights’ 11 neighborhood areas: “Neighborhood groups REACH out to connect Citrus Heights residents”
Picture submissions can be taken to SOAR’s Nov. 21 meeting, where association members will vote on the best photo. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in the Sylvan Community Center at 7521 Community Dr. and contestants, or a representative, must be present at the meeting in order to win and take home the prize.
Residents are also welcome to submit more than one photo, but SOAR requires that all pictures be “real photo prints” rather than computer printouts, and all photos become property of the neighborhood association.
Meeting attendees who want to take a shot at a 20-question “Turkey Trivia” will also have a chance to win “all the fixin’s” for a turkey dinner.
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