Do It Center to Greet Santa, Help Neighbors

Dozens of Do It Center volunteers have no trouble imagining that some residents of the affluent Conejo Valley may not have a Thanksgiving feast, Hanukkah or Christmas this year.

The volunteers will gather today at the center at 28750 Roadside Drive for its annual “Santa Comes to Agoura” food drive.

After greeting Santa Claus, who will arrive by helicopter at 10 a.m., the volunteers will collect and sort canned and other nonperishable food to distribute to more than 200 local families.

They will then set out to help some neighbors who have fallen on hard times.

“The [volunteers] tell them, ‘When you get back on your feet, try to help the next person,’ ” said George Annino, a drive coordinator. “And they do. I’ve seen it happen more than one time.”

Organizers said the drive was established in 1978 by the Agoura/Las Virgenes Optimist Club. It originally included only Agoura residents, but it has expanded to include families in Westlake Village and Oak Park.

Annino said families in need are referred to the program by schools, churches and synagogues, service organizations, and by family and friends.

The organization also distributes the donations to the Optimist Boys Home of Los Angeles, to AIDS patients and to shelters for battered women.

Many of the families find themselves in tight financial situations after a death in the family, job layoff or some other major life change, Annino said.

“There are multiple things that happen that keep the number of these people rising every year,” Annino said. “But we don’t even get into those reasons. We don’t know how they got there, we’re just here to help.”

For more information, call (818) 889-8338.