Children Get Chance to Strut Their Stuff as They Prepare to Serve Holiday Feast

The kids at the Boys & Girls Club of Simi Valley won’t be serving the usual Thanksgiving fare at their fourth annual family dinner tonight.

Instead of turkey and stuffing, the youngsters are offering up tacos, Spanish rice, refried beans and Mexican wedding cake.

But if the menu isn’t traditional, the spirit is. Because this Thanksgiving dinner isn’t about food.

For these 7- to 13-year-olds, mostly from disadvantaged families, the dinner that they will prepare and the play they will present is a chance to show their friends and families what they can do.

“It’s an opportunity for parents to see their child, who may be non-academic, shine,” said Becca Merrell, executive director of the club. “They can be proud of them for their accomplishments.”

There is little doubt that these children are proud.

At a spirited rehearsal earlier this week for their environmental play “Beware of the Genies,” they boasted about knowing their lines and spoke enthusiastically of having their families come to see them perform.

The youngsters will host about 150 friends and family members at the old elementary school on Kadota Road in Simi Valley that the Boys & Girls Club calls headquarters, program director Paula Mackelburg said.

“Everything is done by the kids,” Mackelburg said. “The kids select a menu and actually cook the food. The kids will be making centerpieces for the tables. They do all the work.”

Doing all the work is what the dinner is truly about.

“It’s empowering kids,” Merrell said. “They will flex their power some way. They are going to be heard. Their lives are very structured and this gives them something positive to do.”

Watching these children get ready for their big night, it’s hard to believe that a Thanksgiving dinner can take on such weighty significance. And there’s no question that when they say they’re thankful for their families, it’s often a non-traditional family that they’re talking about.

Take Oyinda Elias, 9, an effervescent fourth-grader, who said: “I’m going to give thanks to God, my mom, my sister who lives with my dad because my parents are divorced, and the rest of my family in England.”

Oyinda is typical of many of the students who take part in the Boys & Girls Club after-school activities.

“These kids come from disadvantaged families, but it’s not the same kind of poverty you see in other places,” Merrell said. “It’s usually families that used to have two incomes and now have only one. We have single parents and blended families, with the father and stepmother and mother and stepfather all coming together.”

The dinner, Merrell said, is an opportunity for the children to see that all families are different.

“It’s real healthy for the kids to see that ‘My family is OK,’ ” Merrell said. “It’s not ‘Leave It to Beaver,’ but it’s OK.”

If their families are not traditional, however, these children have the traditional things to be thankful for--with some twists that naturally reflect who they are and where they come from.

“I’m thankful for food. I have a great family, great shelter. I’m grateful I wasn’t in the fires, that I have a safe place to sleep and I don’t have to worry about criminals,” said 12-year-old Eric Dulberg.

Yet, most of the youngsters give thanks for the same things that children all over the United States will be saying thanks for. Stacy Gunawan, 9, managed to cover them all.

“I’m thankful for my family, my mother that made me alive, for the food that I have, all the clothes, school, teachers that teach us, house, friends and the things I have to play with,” Stacy said.

“Oh,” she added: “And there’s one more thing. For God.”