ELLSWORTH - You can go online and help name two North Iowa turkeys that will be pardoned during next week's 61st annual Thanksgiving Turkey Pardon at the White House.

Your choices: Popcorn and Cranberry, Yam and Jam, Dawn and Early Light, Roost and Run, Pumpkin and Pecan, or Apple and Cider.

Collin Hill, 9, of rural Ellsworth, has another option.

"Cy and Herky," he said, referring to the Iowa State University and University of Iowa mascots.

And which should be the turkey?

"Cy," said Collin, a dedicated ISU man, without hesitation.

Whatever their monikers, two turkeys raised by Collin, his brother, Conner, 8, and their father, Nathan, will be pardoned. One will be an "alternate."

By virtue of being chairman of the National Turkey Federation, Nathan's father, Paul Hill of Ellsworth, is the sixth Iowan chosen to deliver the Thanksgiving birds.

He and his wife, Mary, will present them to President Bush in the Rose Garden at 9:30 a.m. (CDT) on Wednesday, Nov. 26.

"It's a great honor for our family and the state of Iowa," Hill said during a media event Wednesday at Nathan's farm. "It's a great opportunity to represent the turkey industry. Really, what you're doing is putting your best step forward as an industry. And you're showcasing what you do, and the care that you take. And it really brings it back to the basics of the family farm. And that's what we represent."

Nathan Hill and his boys chose 13 young turkeys and raised them separately from the regular barn, which holds 4,500 gobblers.

They wanted nice head coloring, good "feathering," that fancy turkey strut and calm personalities.

The two finalists - Cy and Herky? - will weigh 44 to 45 pounds when they meet the president.

Pete Hermanson of Story City, the fourth Iowan to make the presentation - to President Reagan in 1988 - said Paul Hill is deserving as a leader in the turkey industry.

"We've had some good luck and some good people," he said.

The Hill family will stay at the Willard Hotel, across from the White House in Washington, D.C.

Their turkeys will stay there, too, either in a foyer or a bathroom.

"We don't know which," Paul Hill said. "But we'll throw down some sawdust and the turkeys will have quite a night the night before they see the president."

After the ceremony, the Hills and their birds will head to California and Disneyland.

The turkeys will reign as grand marshals of Disneyland's Thanksgiving Day parade, then retire to the rustic Disney region of Frontierland.

See www.whitehouse.gov to help name them.

Contact Dick Johnson at dick.johnson@globegazette.com