Nov 27, 2008 8:33 pm US/Pacific
Residents Celebrate Thanksgiving Across Region
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
More than 2,000 impoverished men, women and children enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving dinner Thursday at the Fred Jordan Mission on Skid Row.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined hundreds of other volunteers to serve up 3,000 pounds of turkey with all the trimmings during the Mission's 65th annual Thanksgiving Turkey Banquet.
Mission President Willie Jordan, wife of the founder, Fred Jordan was on hand, along with newly crowned Miss California Teen USA Chelsea Gilligan of Beaumont.
With the economy becoming another kind of turkey, the number of people seeking assistance at the Mission has "skyrocketed" as donations have gone down, but there has also been an increase in volunteers, according to Mission officials.
In another Skid Row Thanksgiving tradition, "Father Dollar Bill" handed out one-dollar bills to the needy outside the nearby Salvation Army.
The minister, whose real name is Father Maurice Chase -- a former assistant to the president of Loyola Marymount University -- gave away an estimated $15,000.
Some mothers with children and the extremely poor received hundred- dollar bills.
Chase's annual dollar giveaway is part of the Skid Row Charity Fund, an organization that is funded by celebrity donors and their families.
Other holiday events in Los Angeles County included:
-- in Valley Village, Temple Beth Hillel served 1,000 pounds of turkey along with dinners to the poor;
-- in Pacoima, Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, and the congregation at Valley Crossroads Seventh Day Adventist Church served dinner to less fortunate residents and provided free shoes and clothes from the church's clothing boutique;
-- in Pasadena, the Union Station Foundation held its 32nd "Thanksgiving in the Park," serving meals at Central Park;
-- in San Fernando, City Councilman Richard Alarcon helped served Thanksgiving dinners to families, including victims of the recent wildfires;
-- in Sylmar, Los Angeles County probation employees and juveniles from the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall served meals to victims of the recent Sylmar- area wildfire;
-- in Sun Valley, Polytechnic High School students cooked dinner for survivors of the fire at Oakridge Mobile Home Park
-- in Hollywood, the nonprofit organization Food on Foot distributed holiday meals, backpacks and bus tokens to homeless people and introduced its "Work for Food" program.
In Orange County:
-- in Anaheim, dinners were served in the Honda Center parking lot to needy residents by La Casa Garcia Restaurant and We Give Thanks Inc., the nonprofit started by restaurant owner Frank Garcia
-- in Laguna Beach, the annual "Thanksgiving Potluck in Bluebird Park was held
-- in Placentia, dinner was served to Camp Pendleton Marines, members of the American Legion and veterans and their families.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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