Frozen turkeys took on a strikingly new appearance Saturday as they were used as bowling balls in this year’s Turkey-Roll-A-Bowl held at a local grocery store.

The event, hosted by WDEK-FM, Pick ‘N Save and Coca-Cola, featured a mock bowling alley, set up in the meat aisle of Pick ‘N Save, 2500 Sycamore Rd. Cases of Coke lined the four-foot by 40-foot alley and ten 2-liter Coke bottles with the bottoms filled with kitty litter were used as pins.

WDEK radio personality Pat Harry said 25 people out of more than 5,000 applicants participated in the event. Twenty of the bowlers were picked from registration forms filled out at Pick ‘N Save. The other five were chosen randomly from the crowd of 200 people.

arry said the bowlers could throw the eight- to 10-pound turkeys “any way they could get them down the aisle.”

WDEK radio personality Keith Bansemer, who emceed the event, said the turkeys did not have holes similar to a regular bowling ball, nor did they roll like a bowling ball.

The turkey was “sliding, slipping, skipping and bouncing off the cases of Coke,” Bansemer said. He added there even were some that bounced off the back of the alley and hit the Coke bottles from the backside.

Each participant got to throw the turkey two times to try to get the highest bottle, or pin, total. Russ Barringer of Maple Park was the winner of $92.50 worth of groceries, two cases of Coke and WDEK sunglasses.

Barringer and another contestant each got two strikes with their two throws, so a tie breaker was held. Barringer won the event with 39 pins, Bansemer said.

A wide range of participants attended Roll-A-Bowl, including some from Mendota, Elburn, Chicago and Indiana, he said.

“It was a Coke bottle, pin-smashing success,” Bansemer said.

Bansemer said last year Pick ‘N Save cut off the skin of the turkey used for the roll-a-bowl and served the rest to the WDEK employees who had to work on Thanksgiving.