Giving of Themselves : Thanksgiving Celebrated With Free Meals for Hungry, Contemplation

In Ventura on Thursday, religious leaders fed the spirit during Thanksgiving Day services, while the Knights of Columbus fed the body, serving up a feast that attracted hundreds of people, including the needy, the elderly and some who just didn’t feel like cooking.

In Oxnard, the poor and homeless were treated to a turkey dinner with all of the trimmings.

And from Ojai to Thousand Oaks, an army of volunteers delivered Thanksgiving meals to more than 200 senior citizens stuck at home and unable to fix dinner for themselves.

These were among the scenes Thursday as Ventura County residents celebrated Thanksgiving. In addition to traditional turkey dinners and family gatherings, dozens of volunteers spent the day helping others.

In the eastern half of Ventura, some Thanksgiving dinners were delayed by a power failure that shut down electric ovens from the Santa Paula Freeway to Olivas Park Drive.

About 4,500 customers were affected by the outage, which began at 3:09 p.m. when an underground cable failed on Walker Avenue, Edison spokesman Tony Wilson said. Power was restored to 99% of Edison’s customers by 4:30 p.m., he said. The affected area was bounded on the west by Callens Road and on the east by Montgomery Avenue.

An Edison dispatcher said she had taken several calls from customers worried about their Thanksgiving dinners.

But before the lights went out, however, a turkey dinner in downtown Ventura sponsored by the Knights of Columbus drew hundreds of people.

“Everyone is welcome, not just the homeless,” said Paul Heyder, grand knight of the Knights’ Council 2498, as he surveyed the post’s crowded hall. Diners sat at 10 long tables covered with white tablecloths, as servers squeezed past offering refills of coffee, water and punch.

“I’m too old to cook,” said Irene Grimm, 79, as she unfolded plastic utensils from a yellow napkin and prepared to dig into a plate heavily laden with turkey, dressing, potatoes and green beans.

Grimm, dining with her husband Louis, 89, said it was at least the 10th year they have joined in the Knights of Columbus feast. Thursday night, they were planning to sample Rotary Club cuisine at another dinner.

John Davis counted himself among the homeless, although he and his wife Roberta have an RV to sleep in.

“This is fantastic, it always is,” Davis said as he finished off a thick slab of pumpkin pie.

He whipped out a copy of Street Sheet, a newspaper for the homeless. Under a column entitled, “What Thanksgiving Means to Me,” the paper had printed this response from Davis:

“Having hope for a warm place to have a family dinner. Having hope for a house of my own to share with friends. Seeing others pray to the Lord in thanks for what they have and take for granted.”

On the other side of Ventura County, John and Mona Shiban were taking nothing for granted.

The Westlake Village couple spent the morning delivering dinners to seniors. They were among dozens of volunteers who fanned out across Ventura County to ensure that the elderly had holiday meals.

“Most of the people we have are recovering from surgery or are just in ill health and unable to make their own meals,” explained Mona Shiban, a regular volunteer for Conejo Valley Senior Concerns Meals on Wheels for at least 12 years. Husband John, a retired computer programmer, went along Thursday for the ride.

After loading their white Audi with about a dozen dinners--including turkey slices, vegetables and pumpkin pie--the Shibans set out to find the hungry.

At one apartment, Mona Shiban knocked on the door until a white-haired woman opened up.

“I’m slow at getting around here,” said 83-year-old Sylvia Applebaum, who answered the door wrapped in a blue bathrobe and gripping a metal walker.

Applebaum eagerly took her turkey dinner, which included a hand-drawn place mat from Thousand Oaks Girl Scout Troop 607. The 83-year-old said she has volunteered at Manzanita School for nearly 20 years, but has been unable to work lately because of a leg injury.

“I’m not the kind of lady who likes to sit down and do nothing,” she told Shiban. “I’m going back. I wouldn’t give it up for anything.”

At another stop, 79-year-old Ida Bernice Eagleton answered the door. For more than a year, she has relished the Meals on Wheels service provided in Thousand Oaks.

“It’s great,” Eagleton said. “I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

Mona Shiban said she started volunteering for Meals on Wheels when her children were in grade school. But even now that they are grown up and out of the home, Shiban is still going strong.

“Somebody needs to do it,” she said. “There’s a great need. But we really have a generous community here.”

Back in Ventura, a line snaked through the parking lot where the Knights of Columbus was serving turkey dinners. Last year, the Knights served about 900 meals. This year, some workers said they expected as many as 1,200.

“I’ve never had to wait in line before,” said Bessie Austin, 80, who has been attending the event for five years. “Maybe there are more hungry people.”

Presiding in the kitchen was Sharky Aristeguieta, a computer worker and onetime caterer whose skills are often tapped by the Knights. He said the group had bought 950 pounds of turkey and started roasting them Sunday night.

“More white meat!” someone yelled, prompting a sigh from Aristeguieta.

“I don’t want to eat turkey for a whole year again,” Aristeguieta said.

For thousands of Ventura County residents, it was a day to offer prayers at church services. At Our Lady of Assumption Church in Ventura, parishioners sang “Now Thank We All Our God” during one of the church’s three Thanksgiving masses.

In his sermon, Father Robert V. Biroschak warned that by making Thanksgiving a secular holiday, “we can lose sight of what we are doing today. We are thanking God for his goodness.

“Yes, give thanks for the tangible things, and for our freedom and our health. But look deeper and give thanks for the presence of God in our lives.”

The priest also called on the worshipers to view their lives in perspective.

“We have so much to be thankful for, but we tend to dwell on the little things that are wrong. We need to look at the glass as more than half full, rather than as a little empty.”