Cornucopia of Holiday Volunteers Overflows
It certainly wasn’t Spago--but you still needed a reservation.
A select crowd of 400 volunteers did reserve ahead to serve Thanksgiving dinner Wednesday to hundreds of homeless people at the Los Angeles Mission, which says it has turned down 200 volunteer offers a day for the past two weeks.
This scene is hot, hot, hot.
The Christmas volunteer list is already filling up.
It’s a love thing: “A lot of people come as couples. They’ll call and say, ‘I want to come with my girlfriend,’ ” said Keisa Chinn, the staff volunteer coordinator for the skid row shelter, which provides nearly half a million meals and more than 100,000 nights of lodging a year.
It’s a family values thing: “It was my wife’s idea,” said Wayne Montz, 41, a cabinetmaker. “We brought our two boys. We thought it would be good for them.”
And it’s a celebrity thing. Emilee Lucas, 20, said she was there because “my grandfather is Wink Martindale, the game show host and deejay.” Martindale was there, filling plates Wednesday in the VIP volunteer area, alongside Tony Danza, Tori Spelling, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Alana Stewart and a host of other postmodern luminaries now playing in a charity near you. Suntan icon George Hamilton obligingly conducted a long radio interview with KTWV-FM (94.7).
“I think we’ve got too many celebrities in the cooking area,” one staffer’s voice crackled over a walkie-talkie.
What? A celebrity emergency? Can such a thing as too many celebrities exist in Los Angeles? If so, publicists were on hand for triage.
“The paparazzi went that way,” a publicist said helpfully, guiding a few reporters still standing around after Tae-Bo guru Billy Blanks left a news conference--and prompting an en masse defection of most of the media.
Blanks brought an entourage of 35 volunteers, the shelter said.
“The celebrities are just like anybody else,” Chinn said. “They want to give back also. This is an opportunity to be a part of what they support in either their time, their resources or just their availability.”
The homeless people were publicity-shy, waving the television cameras away from their children and, in most cases, declining interviews.
They eagerly dug into the steaming turkey dinner, complete with stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams and a hot roll. They were hungry.
“This morning I woke up starving, so this is a blessing today,” said Reggie W., 33, who is struggling to reshape his life in a new government-provided apartment after a long, painful stint on the streets. “I really need this right now.”
Steve Johnson, 28, appreciated the hot meal too. “My wife kicked me out,” he said. “I’ve been on the street for a week. I hope we can reconcile.”
If not, Johnson has no choice but to surrender to a protracted stay in a grimy urban nether world where he is often cold, hungry, lonely--and though he doesn’t like to admit it--afraid.
Moira Shevlin, 30, who works in television commercial production at Green Dot Films, said it is the knowledge that such people are in desperate need that moved her to devote a vacation day to coming down and pitching in.
“I like getting a hot meal into people and supporting a good cause,” she said, as she laid paper plates heaped with food on the long tables.
“I like to give something back to the community,” echoed her mother, Carole Shevlin, an Agoura Hills legal assistant. “Los Angeles has been very good to me. I’ve seen a lot of miracles come out of this mission.”
Many other shelters around town have also filled their volunteer quotas. In some cities, holiday volunteer duty has evolved into a hot singles scene. In Los Angeles, the preponderance of celebrities gives an L.A. let’s-do-lunch networking cast to the rosters.
Smokey Robinson, Edward James Olmos and Pat Boone were among the notables scheduled to appear at a Convention Center dinner Wednesday night for 2,500 homeless and destitute people from shelters throughout Los Angeles, said John Horne, executive director of the Harbor Light Center, a Salvation Army homeless program that is hosting the event. He said Mayor Richard Riordan will also attend.
“The real truth is we have to kind of select a limited number of volunteers,” Horne said. “Last year we were inundated with so many volunteers it was unbelievable. We let volunteers know it is first come, first served, and tell the rest we are unable to use them.”
But “we’re still looking for volunteers to fill Christmas baskets,” he said.
Among the dignitaries making the shelter rounds is state Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), who is running for mayor.
“In this, the City of Angels, it is the better angels among us who give back,” he said Wednesday morning at the Los Angeles Mission.
Villaraigosa will head over to the Midnight Mission this morning and help pass out coffee and doughnuts until dinner begins at 11:30, mission staff say. They’re overbooked, too, with volunteers coming from Cal State Fullerton, DMX Music, Key Club and Gold Star Technology.
“We have tons of groups coming tomorrow,” said Carrie Gatlin, the director of program development at the mission. “At this point, most places are turning people away.
“We’d love to have volunteers for Christmas, though. We like to give people options,” she said. “It’s a life-changing experience for most people.”
More Inside
Operation Gobble: For the last week, politicians across the state have been frantically giving away an estimated 25,000 frozen turkeys. The lawmakers get the limelight, although the birds are provided by the California Water Assn. B9
Gang Giveaway: Members of the Rolling 60s Crips street gang gathered along 10th Avenue Wednesday night to hand out boxes of food to needy families. The effort was a good-will gesture by one of the city’s historically deadliest gangs. B9
