Back for more stuffing Over 2,000 served at last year’s dinner
By JASMIN PERSCH Special to the Daily Press
MAR VISTA — Danny Crowley, 6, cracked two eggs on the edge of the bowl filled with pumpkin pie mix as though he’d been doing it for years.
After he finished stirring the pie filling into a roughly uniform mixture, he forgot he’d already added the condensed milk and filled the measuring cup again.
“I want to try it,” he said before dunking his finger in the condensed milk, after which his mother told him he could no longer pour it in the pre-seasoned pumpkin mix.
His older sister, Mary, 11, pressed her fork along the rim of the uncooked pie, forming an imprint on the dough.
“I like to do it with my hands,” said their 8-year-old brother, Joe.
Their eldest brother, Sam, 13, baked two pies earlier, before rushing off to water polo tryouts.
Three days before Thanksgiving, the Crowleys aren’t preparing for a big family dinner. They’re baking pumpkin pies for the Westside Thanksgiving Day Celebration today at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, where, for the past nine years, the family has spent the holiday with the homeless and needy.
Mary said she likes pouring people coffee at the massive dinner.
“Some people nicely ask (for coffee),” she said. “Some are so thirsty they just take it and have like three cups in 15 minutes.”
She and her mother, Daryl Crowley, recalled one year when a homeless man came to the Thanksgiving dinner wearing shoes made from newspaper.
Sam couldn’t bear to see the man with his makeshift shoes. After a quick trip to a local store, the man was wearing fresh socks and a new pair of sneakers.
Sporting his new shoes, the man broke into an improvised tap dance of delight.
Daryl Crowley said the reason her family spends Thanksgiving helping hundreds of strangers is simple: “It feels really good.
“I remember learning in college about altruism,” Crowley said. “This is not altruistic ‘cause it feels really good.”
The Westside Thanksgiving celebration — initiated by some members of the Westside Vineyard Church in 1982 — now draws participants from local religious groups and is supported by businesses across the country.
Last year, 1,200 volunteers helped out and 2,100 people gobbled up turkey dinners. Donations allowed 200 people to leave with warm blankets and two tons of clothes that were distributed. Hair professionals, doctors and nurses also offered their services, giving haircuts to 280 people, immunizations to hundreds of children and free medical check ups.
This year, professional makeup artists will give makeovers, as well as the services that were offered last year, said longtime volunteer Lori McCreary.
Just three days before the big dinner, the donation goals hadn’t been met yet. Volunteers were still waiting on hundreds of turkeys and cans of food.
But McCreary said it will work out. “We have never run out of food,” she said.
The volunteers pull through every year, bringing enough food for everyone, McCreary added.
Donations continued to pour in at the Civic Auditorium the day before Thanksgiving, as cans of green beans, cranberry sauce, gravy and other fixings were stacked high, not to mention the bars of soap, bottles of shampoo, clothing and other basic needs.
The Crowleys unloaded a batch of hygiene products Wednesday afternoon, after picking them up at St. Anne’s Elementary School.
Crowley pitched the idea of involving local schools in the hygiene drive three years ago at an annual meeting at the Westside Vineyard Church, where preparations for the Thanksgiving dinner are discussed. This year, 15 schools got involved.
The Crowleys will deliver six pies and a cooked turkey to the Civic Auditorium today.
Most of the family will volunteer from early morning until evening, serving coffee, handing out hygiene bags, painting Thanksgiving-themed pictures on banner paper and playing with newly made friends.
Danny and his father, Dan Crowley, will arrive at 11 a.m. and stay a few hours. Danny hasn’t reached the eight-year mark — the age at which he can volunteer without a parent by his side, according to Crowley tradition.
When the family reconvenes Thanksgiving evening — tired and dirty, but glowing from a giving spirit brought out — everybody has to pull together again for another round of cooking and baking.
After which, the family, relatives and, sometimes, new friends from the Civic Auditorium collectively enjoy a Thanksgiving meal.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 24, 2005. Read the original PDF.