Patrons gobble up annual Turkey Bowl

Alec Tau eyed the length of the bowling lane Sunday before he flung his 12-pound frozen turkey down the lane.

Whiff!

His buddy, Remington Bedoya, was the next up to try his hands at turkey bowling.

A shout of "You can do better than that" came from the crowd as the 11-year-old hit nothing but the haystacks behind the makeshift bowling lanes outside of Crossroads Tavern and Eatery in Wood Dale.

Next up was Alex's brother, Andrew Tau, who managed to knock down just three pins before their father began barking out tips to the trio of boys.

"Listen, you guys should get a running start and put some muscle into it," Michael Tau told the boys.

The Tau family joined about 320 bowlers Sunday at Crossroads Tavern's 10th annual Turkey Bowl. Organizers hoped to raise about $3,000 to pay for the expenses of two area youth baseball leagues.

John Naujokas, a head coach of the Wood Dale Sluggers girls traveling baseball team, said his group is trying to raise money to compete at a national tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn. Several of the teammates spent the afternoon retrieving errant turkeys.

And RaeEllen Pugliese, an assistant coach of the Bensenville Bulldogs, said her own team is hoping to raise about $15,000 through several fundraising initiatives to send a team of 13 boys to compete at a baseball tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

"This is definitely one of our bigger fundraisers," Pugliese said. "We're hoping a few of the competitors can help us out."