Providing reasons to be thankful

Dave Brooks

Sometimes it’s difficult to feed one family. Irma Vasquez has to feed

40.

The program coordinator for the Boys and Girls Club’s new Family

Resource Center is one of the many Surf City residents working to get

holiday food to needy families this Thanksgiving. On Friday, she

spent the morning putting the finishing touches on a roomful of

holiday boxes for several dozen needy families in Huntington Beach.

The night before, Girl Scout Troop 798 spent the evening

decorating the boxes with pictures of pilgrims and turkeys and other

holiday icons.

The boxes were then filled with holidays goods like stuffing,

cranberry sauce and potatoes that had been collected from food drive

efforts of the Huntington Beach chapter of Kiwanis and the Sunrise

Rotary. To top things off, each food basket also came with a gift

certificate for a local grocery store so that families could buy

themselves a turkey.

“We want them to have a nice Thanksgiving,� Vasquez said. “They

deserve a big holiday meal like everybody else.�

Surprisingly, there was a lot of food left over from the drive so

the volunteers were able to make baskets for needy families that

didn’t participate in the program, but could use a little extra

holiday cheer.

Families were identified by Huntington Beach Head Start, the Boys

& Girls Clubs of Huntington Valley, the Huntington Beach Adult School

and the Huntington Beach City School District. Each of these groups

brought their lists of families to the Family Resource Center, which

helped bring together the community’s resources to make the holiday a

special one for families in need.

Most of the families that participated in the turkey giveaway also

participated in the Twilight Education Project, a social service

sponsored by the Boys and Girls club.

Families are picked up several times a week and brought to the

Pioneer Drive Facility to participate in classes on nutrition,

computer skills and, most importantly, language instruction.

“You really need language skills to excel in this culture,�

Vasquez said. “Our classes aren’t traditional language classes in

that we focus mainly on survival skills. We help parents learn to

communicate with their children’s teachers, visit the doctor or even

open a bank account.�

In the end, Vasquez said, participants are successful when they

take their skills from this program and use them to support

themselves.

“Our goal is help these parents achieve self-sufficiency,� Vasquez

said. “We want to provide them with the skills that will help them

eventually provide for themselves.�

Vasquez wasn’t the only one helping out this Thanksgiving. On

Wednesday, Girl Scout Brownie Troop 1520 delivered 30 Thanksgiving

dinners to needy families in Huntington Beach and Santa Ana.

The Girl Scouts paid for the meals through fundraising efforts.

Their first drive in 2003 raised $1,200, paying for 10 complete

traditional Thanksgiving dinners. This year, a record $2,000 was

collected providing 30 complete dinners, including smoked turkey by

Johnny Rebs’ in Orange.

Many of the third-grade Brownies made personal contributions out

of their own savings, as well as family members, teachers, neighbors,

friends and Hoag Hospital physicians and staff for contributions.

* DAVE BROOKS covers City Hall. He can be reached at (714)

966-4609 or by e-mail at [email protected].