TROTTING FORWARD — About 118 runners and walkers made their way along North Third Street while participating in the 10th-annual T-Town Turkey Trot, a Thanksgiving Day race held to raise funds for the Helping Hands Food Pantry. -- Warren Scott

TORONTO — About 118 area residents warmed up for Thanksgiving Day and helped fellow community members in need by taking a 3.1-mile run or walk along the streets of Toronto.

A chill in the air didn’t prevent the 10th-annual T-Town Turkey Trot from being a huge success, raising more than $7,731 for the Helping Hands Food Pantry.

Amanda Yazbek, chairman of the food pantry’s board of directors and the race’s founder, said even before the run began, she received large monetary donations from the Anderson-Campbell Insurance Agency, Huntington Merchant Services and the Yazbek-Morton-Paris family.

She noted the total included a $1,000 match from J.E. Foster Funeral Home.

Instead of a specified registration fee, participants have been asked to make a donation of their choice, with those who donated $25 or more entered into drawings for various prizes.

TROTTING FORWARD — About 118 runners and walkers made their way along North Third Street while participating in the 10th-annual T-Town Turkey Trot, a Thanksgiving Day race held to raise funds for the Helping Hands Food Pantry. -- Warren Scott

This year, Yazbek decided to offer spectators the opportunity to purchase chances in the drawings.

She expressed thanks to the organizations and individuals who donated, for the drawings, 46 prizes or gift baskets, “the most we’ve had so far.”

Amy Rice, director of the Helping Hands Food Pantry, she the efforts of Yazbek and others behind the race are greatly appreciated as are the various groups that have donated food through the year.

The donors have included local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and the T-Town Helpers, a group of children and teachers at Toronto Elementary School who held a food drive for the charity.

“We’ve been getting a lot of support. This town has been great,” said Rice.

She said in addition to providing food throughout the year, Helping Hands supplied Thanksgiving meals to 105 households and will be putting together similar items for Christmas meals.

Those interested in donating nonperishable food can bring it between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Mondays and Thursdays, when volunteers will be available to help carry it in, or call the food pantry at (740) 632-6595.

Helping Hands is open at the above times for its distribution of bread and pastries and distributes other food from 9 a.m. to noon on the third Saturday of each month.

Recipients are asked to present a state ID with photo and utility bill showing their current address.

Among the race’s many participants were Heather Cooper of Richmond and her friend, Angel Brown of Calcutta.

Asked how they felt about taking part, Cooper said, “We’re excited. We figured if we are going to eat all day, we might as well be doing something.”

Brown said, “It’s definitely for a good cause. And it’s very organized.”

“This is my first time,” said Mark Martin of Weirton, who said most of his running in the winter is done indoors on a treadmill.

But he added as a Toronto native, he has returned to his hometown for other charity races.

The T-Town Turkey Trot is one of four that make up what has been dubbed the Quadfecta Challenge.

The others include the Pat Campbell Fighting Cancer 5K Run in March, the Biasi-Shuma Memorial 5K, which benefits the American Heart Association and the United Way, in July; and the Burchfield-Hale Colors of Cancer Run in August.

Nearly 40 area residents were expected to receive a Quadfecta Medallion for completing all four.

This year, the first 100 who registered for the T-Town Turkey Trot received a hat bearing that race’s logo and produced by KnightTime Kreations.