They say charity begins at home, but when someone is homeless, where else does charity begin?

Apparently, the Vancouver Canadians front office.

The C’s are donating 100 holiday turkeys through the Salvation Army, with the assistance of Safeway Supermarkets and a bunch of front office staff, to families in need across the lower mainland. The plan is to make this an annual event.

C’s co-owner Jeff Mooney is one of the catalysts behind this move – and what a nice change it is to go from an ownership group that couldn’t afford to patch the players’ pants, to one that will fork out over a grand to feed people that, in all likelihood, will never be able to afford a ticket to a ballgame.

Hey, here’s an idea, C’s – throw a pair of general admission tickets in with each of those turkeys, and feed the eyes, as well the belly!

The handover will take place at the Salvation Army Family Center at Broadway and Fraser on Thursday at 1pm. If you’re in the area, go give the C’s management, owners and staff a pat on the back for putting your ticket money to good use.

UPDATE:
Well, the turkey handover was a huge success – not just for those who’ll be eating well this Thanksgiving as a result of the charity of the C’s, Safeway and the Sally Army, but also from a PR perspective for the team.

You know, I’m surprised more organizations don’t understand just how much they can benefit out of charity giving. Imagine how much positive publicity would come if TD Canada Trust decided to pump $5m into subsidizing low income housing, or if White Spot had a ’show us your welfare check and eat free’ day. If this much press will show up for a hundred turkeys from a baseball team, how many would turn out if Westjet gave 100 low income families free plane tickets to go see their family this Christmas?

Sure, it’s nice to give for the sake of giving. But it doesn’t hurt that, at the other end of it all, you get what you spend back times ten in free publicity. And here’s the proof:

That’d be C’s co-owner Jeff Mooney in the middle, with George Evans of the Salvation Army on his right, and Scott Gibney of Safeway on his left.

And the ensuing media scrum.

Well done, C’s.