Crafts, Food, Entertainment Draw Crowds to Street Festival : Thousand Oaks: Political and social messages also had their day in the sun at the Rotary Club-sponsored event.

Erica Donabo spent her 14th birthday Sunday wandering up and down Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks clutching a plastic garbage bag ready to be filled with trash.

Her 15-year-old sister, Betsy, and friend Nikki Alimena joined in the garbage hunt, a clean-up effort sponsored by the Ascension Evangelical Lutheran Church, which manned one of more than 175 booths at the second annual Thousand Oaks Community Street Fair on Sunday.

The three Camarillo High School students had more work to do midway through the afternoon festival, however. They said the church would pay them only for full bags, and theirs held little besides oxygen as the street fair was coming to a close.

“It’s my birthday today and I have to pick up trash,” moaned Erica, who was working with her sister and friend to help raise the money to send her to a youth conference in Atlanta next summer. Thousands of people lined a three-block stretch of Moorpark Road, purchasing everything from wearable art and sketches of John Wayne to churros and soft pretzels. The Thousand Oaks Rotary Club sponsored the festival, which was held under spectacular clouds and mostly sunny skies.

“We should sell 500 or 600 tri-tip sandwiches or more,” said Jim Wallace of the Thousand Oaks Elks Lodge No. 2477, looking over a queue of nearly a dozen people waiting to buy a sandwich for $3.50 and a good cause.

“There’s never any leftovers,” Wallace said, before hedging slightly. “Very seldom.”

Most of the booths lining the grassy median between the four-lane thoroughfare featured hand-made arts and crafts from area artists.

In a small window of a trailer that doubled as a food booth on Sunday hung a hand-scrawled sign offering solid chocolate reindeer for $50.

“It’s 10 pounds of chocolate,” said Marti Genge of Kay’s Catering Service of Westlake Village. “She’ll even carve it in front of you.”

Continuous entertainment bustled on three stages, including the Fresh Chances for America, a Thousand Oaks-based troupe of teens and preteens in multicolored outfits who perform patriotic songs and smartly choreographed dances.

“We practice every Monday for three hours,” said 12-year-old Sarah Berberea, a Thousand Oaks seventh-grader. “Our group means we’re off drugs. It shows that kids can have fun and get together and spread a good message to other kids.”

A group calling itself the Conejo Substance Abuse Prevention Authority took advantage of the crowd of 10,000 or so to offer red ribbons to commemorate Red Ribbon Week, which begins officially next week.

“We have 75,000 ribbons the seniors made for us,” said Jackie Pizitz of Westlake.

Other groups spread political messages to passersby, asking for signatures against the North American Free Trade Agreement or urging approval or opposition to Proposition 174, the controversial school-voucher initiative.

“This is a family event and the issue affects families,” said Karen McLaine of Thousand Oaks, who handed out balloons urging “Yes on Proposition 174.”

“There’s another group down there (opposing 174), so we’ve got both sides represented,” McLaine said.

But 10-year-old Mandy Landrey of Thousand Oaks was unconcerned with politics.

“They just asked me if I wanted a balloon,” she said. “I don’t even know what it means.”

Demonstrations of equipment used by the Ventura County Fire Department and Pruner paramedics attracted hundreds of curious children.

“We’ve got all the showy stuff here,” firefighter Ron Oatman said as he lifted a 3-year-old from behind the wheel of a hook-and-ladder. “Over there they’re doing demonstrations of CPR and defibrillators.”

From behind a rack of clothes she designed herself, Linda Leez of Oxnard offered up her wares.

“It’s different,” she conceded, looking over a turquoise-studded tuxedo shirt for $38. “They’re usually one or two of a kind. It’s kind of nice to know you bought something from the person who designed it.”