CALLING ALL TURKEYS CHASE AND SONS WANT YOUR THANKSGIVING DONATIONS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Antelope Valley charities that help the homeless, abused and needy will benefit from a pre-Thanksgiving food drive going on this weekend in a Palmdale shopping center.

For the eighth year, radio and cable personality Mitchell Chase and his three sons are spending the weekend in a motor home parked outside an Albertsons supermarket, collecting donations for four charities.

Chase is keeping his fingers crossed that Antelope Valley residents' generosity hasn't been tapped out by contributions for Hurricane Katrina victims, which through the Red Cross alone have amounted to nearly $300,000 locally.

``We just want to do the best we can. It's been a tough year for the United States,'' Chase said.

Past collections have averaged about 25,000 pounds of food, Chase said.

Chase and sons Micah, 17, Josh, 16, and Abraham, 14, are set up with a big rig and a remote radio broadcasting booth in the Albertsons parking lot at the southwest corner of Palmdale Boulevard and 10th Street West.

Donations can be dropped off today and until 8 a.m. Monday. The food will be delivered Monday to the charities.

During the collection, Chase is making regular broadcasts on local Clear Channel radio stations 610 AM, 1340 AM, 103.1 FM and 105.5 FM and on Adelphia cable system. His eldest son Micah is in charge of the collections.

``I'm doing the broadcasts. He's running the operation,'' Chase said.

The donations will go to Grace Resource Center, a Lancaster organization that provides meals, emergency food and other help; Palmdale's South Antelope Valley Emergency Services food bank; the Valley Oasis Domestic Violence Shelter, and Lancaster Community Shelter, which provides beds, food and other help for the homeless.

This year the effort has a refrigerated truck to take frozen turkeys, which people often drop off when they get them in market promotions.

Albertsons is helping with a special deal for $18 worth of food for $9.99, Chase said.

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Radio and TV personality Mitchell Chase and his sons are spending the weekend collecting food in a big rig for the needy.

(2 -- 3 -- color) Loading food for the needy into the big rig are, from left, Abraham, 14, Michah, 17, Mitchell and Josh Chase, 16. Mitchell Chase, left, broadcasts on several radio stations this weekend from an Albertsons parking lot in Palmdale.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer