Turkey Trot serves as family tradition for Greensburg woman, family

On Thanksgiving morning, Doris Daigle can be found in one place — the intersection of Westminster Avenue and West Pittsburgh Street in Greensburg.

She will be looking up the hill through her red-framed eyeglasses at a sea of runners closing in on the finish line of the city’s annual Turkey Trot. The 84-year-old Greensburg woman will be searching Thursday for 14 family members running the 5K race. But Daigle is willing to hand out high-fives, hugs and encouragement to help any of the runners get over the last hill of the race.

While wearing high heels, of course.

“I know the importance of that spot,” she said.

It’s become her place to be. Thursday will mark her 25th year cheering on participants whether she knows them or not.

“She shows up both in how she presents herself and also in her enthusiasm for everyone around her,” said daughter Mary Caraccioli of New York City. “It doesn’t matter if she knows them, doesn’t matter what they believe … they’re there and she’s there to cheer them on.”

The Greensburg Turkey Trot has become tradition for the Daigle family over the last 25 years.

A couple of Daigle’s sons decided to start running the race in honor of their father, Gerald, who died unexpectedly in 1995 at age 70. Doris Daigle picked out her spot on the race route because it was an easy place to park and, being short even in heels, she would be able to get a good view.

Word spread through the family over the next couple years and more started signing up for the race.

“Then it became really important because they’re running for their dad,” Doris Daigle said.

At one time, she had 20 family members — her children, their spouses and grandchildren — in the race to track. For the younger family members, it’s special to have grandma waiting along the route with a smile on her face, said son Jude Daigle of Greensburg.

“You want to look good because you know there’s going to be a picture taken of you,” he said.

Gerald and Doris Daigle met in her native Massachusetts, where he was working as a manager at J.C. Penney. She noticed him at the store and saw him again a few days later staying at a boarding house next door to where she lived.

She devised a plan to shoo the family cat Fluffy out the door while Gerald Daigle was outside and then go on a mission to find the feline. She ended up finding her husband.

Over the next 40 years, they had nine children — five girls and four boys — and moved around the country with Gerald Daigle’s job before ending up in Greensburg in the 1970s. They ran a dress shop and bakeries after Daigle retired from J.C. Penney. Doris Daigle now works for her son Jude Daigle at PAconnect in Greensburg and has 27 grandchildren with a fifth great-grandchild on the way.

Doris Daigle credits her husband with promoting the importance of exercise by getting their children up early for workouts.

“He’d have them doing calisthenics out in the yard,” she said. “It lasted a couple of years and then it fell by the wayside.”

But the idea seems to have stuck. The family closeness did, too.

“It’s the togetherness,” Doris Daigle said. “It’s just that togetherness of the family, that’s what I look forward to.”

The group will have brunch at her house after the race to talk about their times and who they saw. Then they head to a family cabin near Seven Springs for Thanksgiving dinner. The next day involves Black Friday shopping for the women and another feast before everyone starts to head home over the weekend.

But before all of that can start, Daigle will be joined by her faithful cheering companion on the race route, granddaughter Olivia Caraccioli, 14, and possibly others. It’s become a tradition for them as Daigle contributes to the community and holiday spirit in her own special way.

“She just loves everybody, whether it’s people at work or the people at her church, the gal at the grocery store who needs help with something, she sees the best in people,” Mary Caraccioli said. “She really wants everybody to feel good about themselves. She’s always trying to remind people of what is special about them.”