Cooper Farms official talks turkey experience

CELINA - Gary Cooper said he was overwhelmed by the media frenzy his two turkeys caused at the White House the day before Thanksgiving.

Cooper talked at Thursday's agriculture breakfast meeting about providing the birds for the traditional pardoning ceremony where one bird was spared from the Thanksgiving table by President Barack Obama. The second bird was raised as a backup.

"There were 40 to 50 news crews wall to wall in the White House," Cooper said, adding some came from France and Japan.

As chairman of the National Turkey Federation, Cooper got the honor of supplying the birds this year.

Usually the event is in the White House Rose Garden or on a porch-like area of the White House but it was moved inside the White House for the first time due to nasty weather, he said.

Reports that the Obamas' teenage daughters, Sasha and Malia, did not act appropriately during the ceremony were "absolutely crazy," he said.

Cooper's sons Cole and Luke drove the turkeys to the capital the Monday before Thanksgiving in a rented van. The birds were chosen based on behavior and looks from a flock of 66 Cole Cooper raised in a specially built barn at his home near Fort Recovery.

The Toms had their own room adjoining the Coopers' at the posh Willard hotel. The birds were bedded down with shavings that sometimes leaked out from underneath the hotel room door into the hallway. They gobbled whenever they heard sirens or other noises, Gary Cooper said, causing looks of puzzlement on the faces of other hotel guests.

To get the birds accustomed to noises and camera flashes, Cole Cooper played music and turned lights on and off in the barn. Once the flock was narrowed to the final two, Cole Cooper further trained the turkeys by lifting them onto a table to simulate the pardoning ceremony. He acted as the handler during the pardoning ceremony.

After the ceremony, the birds were sent to Morven park in Virginia where they will live out their days.

Cooper said the interest in the birds began well before the president's pardoning. The company placed numerous photos and messages on its Facebook page about the presidential birds in training.

When Cooper Farms contacted area schools to bring students to Fort Recovery to see the birds, the response was dramatic.

"So many schools responded, we had to quit calling the schools," Gary Cooper said. "We started getting calls from big-city schools in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati so we took the turkeys there."

The school visits educated children about the turkey industry and Cooper Farms, he said. About 1,200 students from area schools visited the turkeys in Fort Recovery.

Cooper said children came up with the birds' names, Mac and Cheese, through a social media campaign. Those attending Thursday's meeting laughed when he noted his favorite turkey names proposed by a Cleveland student: Lunch and Dinner.

"Those didn't make it," he said, drawing more laughter from the crowd.

Gary Cooper's brother Jim and nephew Greg Cooper presented and handled the presidential turkey in the 1990s while Bill Clinton was president.

The next county ag breakfast meeting is 7:30 a.m. in the first floor conference room at the Mercer County Central Services Building in Celina.