Some very lucky birds paid a visit to West Seattle Monday, Nov. 15.

Two large white commercial turkeys, part of the flock of birds from which a pair to be pardoned by the President will be chosen, came to the Delridge Community Center for a special school assembly.

As part of a statewide Washington Agriculture in the Classroom program in partnership with Foster Farms the turkeys were on display as officials from the company spoke to an assembly of children from West Seattle Montessori. The school is one of only two chosen to host assemblies in the Northwest.

The children, in preparation for the event made special turkey headbands and created turkey art

On hand for the event was Yubert Envia Vice President for Turkey and Prepared Foods for Foster Farms who also serves as the Chairman of the National Turkey Federation. "That group has been presenting a turkey to the President since 1947, " said Envia," when Harry Truman was in office. But it wasn't until 1989 when President George H.W. Bush started pardoning turkeys. Those birds went to a park or somewhere else for the rest of their lives. The last five years the birds went to Disney but the birds this year are going to Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington.

The birds at the assembly were both "Toms" or male turkeys and while they don't have names yet that's in process. "Last week through the AG in the Classroom program we had a bunch of names sent in by schoolkids and we submitted those to the National Turkey Federation who is submitting them to the White House this week. Those names will go on the White House website where the whole nation can vote for their favorite names," Envia said.

Ira Bristor, Live Production Manager for Foster Farms presented some slides showing how the turkeys in this special flock are raised. What do they feed a Presidential Turkey? "We feed them a corn and soy diet fortified with vitamins and minerals," said Bristor. "Nothing special."

These birds are extraordinarily fortunate though. "We started out with a flock of 20,000 birds, " Bristor explained, " and at about five and a half weeks of age we went in and hand chose 25 and moved them to the "Presidential Palace" as we call it at Wellsford Ranch near Modesto, California. Out of that we will pick two to go to the White House. That choice will be made Sunday morning in an interesting way. "Yubert's idea is to walk in and pick the first two who walk up and volunteer," said Bristor laughing.