CALGARY -- Usually at this time of year, Calgary Stampeders defensive line coach Corey Mace would be hanging around with a lot of turkeys.

That’s the way his food drive worked. People would donate turkeys and Mace and his crew would deliver them to needy families over the holiday season.

But COVID-19 has forced Mace to find a different way to do his turkey drive. But he says there was no way he was going to give up. 

“Life gave us an audible and we’ve got to execute,” he said.

“This year what we ended up doing is sticking out boots in the ground with the Airdrie Food Bank. There’s two platforms that you can donate.  If you go to the Aidrie Food Bank website, there’s two platforms where you can donate. There’s a donation section where you can fill out for tax receipts if you would like. And we’re also going to start a live auction."

The auction is now underway and even though this is the first day, donations are picking up steam. 

The Stampeders Foundation is also stepping up to help the Turkey drive. They’re matching donations up to $5,000.  

Mace’s wife Petra says the Turkey Drive is something that is near and dear to their hearts.

“I knew that marrying him and coming into this family it was going to have to be something that was important to myself as well,” she told CTV News.

“So we kind of adopted this together to grow it as much as we can the past eight years and every year we’re just blown away that we hit new records.”

Yes, it may be different this year but Macy says he’s hoping they can set another record.

“The only thing that’s really important is that the support has been tremendous and everybody understands the circumstances," he said.

"We’re looking to breaking records and goals still and then hopefully we’ll get back to normal next season.”

If you’d like to donate or bid in the auction just go to the Airdrie Food Bank website and click on Corey Mace.

The turkey drive wraps up on Dec. 19.