The event wraps the 20th year
Nineties country music icon and philanthropist Tracy Lawrence celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Mission: Possible Turkey Fry and Benefit Concert this week in a massive way, seeing the Nashville community come together like never before for the beloved event. What started as a morning of prep led to panic after discovering a refrigerated truck had broken, spoiling 650 stored turkeys out of the 3,600 total allotment. Lawrence called out to social media, news outlets, artists and celebrities asking for donations to replenish the stock in order to reach their goal of feeding 36,000 people throughout Middle Tennessee. The result was truly a miracle, ending in over 2,400 turkeys donated, making the new total 5,350 cooked and frozen distributed turkeys. The added donations have now brought the total to 50,000+ meals provided for those in need.
“I cannot imagine a better 20th anniversary for the Mission: Possible Turkey Fry and Concert,” Lawrence shares. “What started as a day of uncertainty turned into a day of our community coming together in a way I couldn’t have imagined. Between the fry itself and the benefit concert with my friends Gretchen, Chris, Eric and Halfway to Hazard, I was blown away once again by the kindness of our neighbors.”
Community support continued into the night as fans gathered at Luke Combs’ Category 10 for the benefit concert, featuring performances by Lawrence, Gretchen Wilson, Chris Cagle, Eric Paslay and Halfway to Hazard. The event raised a record-breaking $355,000 for Mission: Possible, including $250,000 in a check presented to Nashville Rescue Mission. The funds came from ticket sales, silent auction items, significant artist donations, and more. New this year, the show hosted a canned food drive on behalf of Second Harvest Food Bank to help support families and individuals facing food insecurity, with one participant taking home a signed guitar from the food drive raffle.
Last year, the concert raised $250,000 for the third year in a row, featuring performances by Lawrence, Russell Dickerson, Meghan Patrick, John Schneider, and Halfway to Hazard. Past performers of the annual concert include Lainey Wilson, Luke Combs, Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean, Chris Young, Cole Swindell, Justin Moore, Dustin Lynch, Lee Brice and more.
In addition to special artist donations from the concert, artists and celebrities came out to support the turkey fry earlier in the day, with appearances from notable names like Jamey Johnson, Tucker Wetmore, Charles Esten, Dustin Lynch, Meghan Patrick, John Crist, Rodney Atkins, Clint Black, Rhett Akins, Frank Ray and more. Wetmore surprised Lawrence with a drop off of over 100 turkeys, while Patrick also donated and took to social media to encourage her community to support and donate. Additional turkeys were donated from artists like Steve Warner, Atkins, Black, Akins, Esten and more.
Since its inception, Lawrence’s Mission: Possible has fried over 15,000 turkeys, provided more than 135,000 meals to the homeless across Middle Tennessee, donated over $1.3 million to Nashville Rescue Mission and raised over $2.5 million, which helps to further its goals, advocate for those in need and expand their ability to support aligned causes.
