Residents Feast Eyes on Meals and Wheels : Holiday: County roads and highways are jammed with travelers. Volunteers set the tables for the needy.

Holiday travelers heading for Thanksgiving Day family gatherings jammed Ventura County highways Wednesday, while churches from Thousand Oaks to Ojai prepared to serve traditional meals to thousands of needy residents.

The lobby of the Oxnard Transportation Center was crowded on the heaviest travel day of the year, as families waited patiently for relatives to arrive or purchased bus and train tickets for Thanksgiving trips of their own.

“Everybody’s going and coming, and they have to be home for Thanksgiving,” said Christine Fritzler, who supervises the Greyhound Bus terminal at the busy center.

“Lots of kids are traveling by themselves, wives and husbands are getting together and singles are going to see their families,” Fritzler said of the family-oriented crowd. “They want to spend time on Thanksgiving with someone they care about.”

Fritzler said the bus line would transport as many as 300 people by the end of the day Wednesday--three times the usual number--adding extra buses to the regular schedule. “It’s by far our busiest day of the year,” she said.

Daniel Finklea, a school director at the Naval Construction Battalion Center at Port Hueneme, waited until two teen-aged Seabees boarded trains to visit their relatives. Because of the holiday crush, Amtrak trains were running about 20 minutes behind schedule.

“We try to do a lot of activities to encourage sailors to get together and not stay in their room alone on Thanksgiving,” Finklea said. “For many, it’s their first time away from home and it’s tough on them.”

Travelers trying to leave town encountered heavy congestion on most highways Wednesday afternoon. And today, they will have to contend with strong, gusty winds, especially on the Antelope Valley Freeway, CHP officials said.

While many families were making plans Wednesday to visit relatives, others helped feed the needy or prepared meals that will be served today at locations from Thousand Oaks to Ventura.

At the Ventura County Rescue Mission in Oxnard, about 350 down-on-their-luck residents sat down to a traditional meal of turkey and fixings served by an eager corps of 80 volunteers.

At one table, Mary McGee of Oxnard started in on a second plate of food as her 5-year-old grandson, Mahdee, picked selectively at his food.

“I ated so many things I’m stuffed,” said Mahdee, a kindergartner at Driffill Elementary School in Oxnard.

McGee, 53, said she and her grandson have rented an apartment after being homeless for nearly two years since she hurt her back and had to quit working as a housekeeper.

“Things looked pretty bleak for a while,” McGee said. “More needs to be done to get women and children off the streets.”

Feeding the homeless and needy has become so traditional on Thanksgiving that the Ventura County Rescue Mission had to turn away more than half the people who called to volunteer, said Carol Roberg, the associate director.

Pausing from his volunteer chores, George Terrell of Port Hueneme said he was pleased to help out the Rescue Mission.

“It’s not like the Los Angeles Rescue Mission here,” said Terrell, who has volunteered before in Los Angeles on Thanksgiving Day. “There are no celebrities here, just people helping people.”

While half a dozen churches and social agencies in west Ventura County are serving Thanksgiving Day meals today, fewer meals will be available to the homeless and needy in the more affluent east county.

“Many people in what appears to be a very affluent community find it hard to accept that there are pockets of poverty in Thousand Oaks,” said Karen Ingram, who runs the church-sponsored Conejo Valley Winter Shelter program.

Even the daily feeding program at Under One Roof, a multi-agency social center, will be closed for Thanksgiving, she said.

Dominion Christian Center will offer a traditional meal to as many as 100 people today, said Pastor Mike Martin. The church has recently moved to Thousand Oaks Boulevard to serve the area’s less affluent residents, he said.

“People don’t really know about the need here,” Martin said. “For some, the old downtown has become a no-man’s land.”

County residents planning to drive to the homes of relatives and friends today should not encounter any road closures in the state, a CHP spokesman said. But motorists trying to get an early start Wednesday ran into congested traffic on practically every road out of town, said Sgt. Ernie Garcia.

The CHP monitors highway speeds on a regional road map that depicts traffic flow in a display of green, yellow and red lights. “All the highway lights at the travel operations center are red,” Garcia said.

Road travel should be easier today, but drivers are advised to take extra time, especially going to the airport, he said. A wind advisory has been issued for a 20-mile stretch of the Antelope Valley Freeway between Interstate 5 and Ward Road.

Otherwise, temperatures should reach the mid-60s to mid-70s today before dipping to the mid-40s to low-50s in most areas tonight, said James McCutcheon, a meteorologist with WeatherData.

And the weather should remain dry in Southern California through the weekend as many county residents return from their holidays, he said.

Thanksgiving Dinners

Thanksgiving dinners for the needy will be served in Ventura County at the following locations and times:

Knights of Columbus Hall 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 1,000 to 1,200 36 S. Figueroa Plaza, Ventura World University Noon to 4 p.m. 75 to 100 107 N. Ventura St., Ojai Zoe Christian Center at the 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 500 to 700 Boys & Girls Club of Oxnard 126 E. 7th St., Oxnard American Red Cross shelter 7:30 p.m. 100 351 S. K St., Oxnard Grace Brethren Church, with 5 to 7 p.m. 200 International Footprint Assn. 2762 Avenida Simi, Simi Valley Praise Chapel of Oxnard 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 200 and Crossroads Community Church Community Center Park 9th and G streets Total Life Christian Center Church 2 to 4 p.m. 100 to 200 of God in Christ 660 N. Ventura Ave., Ventura Dominion Christian Center 3 to 6 p.m. 100 1376 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks