Moose really know how to serve city

GOOD EATS—Firefigthers with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection were served a Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings last year by the Camarillo Family Moose Center on Arneill Road. The firefighters, bivouacked at the Camarillo Airport during the 2007 wild fires, enjoyed the free meal and then stepped in to help serve dinners and clean dishes. Why would Wayne Scott and other members of the Camarillo Family Moose Center donate food, money and countless hours to treat hundreds of strangers to a free meal on Thanksgiving Day?

"You never forget about it," said Scott, 50. "It's such an emotional experience. . . . There's not a dry eye in the house."

For the second consecutive year, the 800-member Camarillo Family Moose Center on Arneill Road will serve a free, hot meal on Thanksgiving Day to anyone who wants one.

Scott, a 17year Moose member who's organizing the event, brought the idea to his fellow Moose members. For 10 years the former owner of the Lamplighter Sports Bar had opened the tavern and put on a spread for the down-and-out on Thanksgiving Day. He sold the bar several years ago but never forgot how it made him feel to help someone in need on such a special day.

"It's great to do something like that for the community," he said.

His fellow Moose agreed and last year was the first time the Moose Center provided a Thanksgiving meal to anyone— no forms to fill out, no eligibility requirements to meet, no questions asked.

About 150 people showed up last year, including people who were homeless. They not only ate a hearty meal at the center but were given a box of food to take with them.

"We loaded them up. They couldn't believe it," Scott said.

Also attending was a man whose wife had recently died. He came in with his three daughters, all under the age of 10, who couldn't take their eyes off the chocolate cake. Scott said he and the other Moose think the girls rarely ate dessert.

Scott, the center's kitchen manager, expects 400 people for dinner this year. He and a couple of other members will begin cooking 20 turkeys, 10 baked hams, stuffing, potatoes, green beans, dinner rolls, and apple and pumpkin pies Wednesday afternoon and continue throughout the night.

A store is expected to donate some food, but Moose members will provide most of the food and money needed to put on the banquet. Moose members have also volunteered hundreds of hours planning, organizing and publicizing the event.

Among the people expected at the dinner are the clients of the nearby Jehovah Jireh Food Pantry.

Cecilia Rexford, the volunteer who runs the pantry, said many of her clients have never had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner before. Some are immigrants who can't read recipes written in English, and others never had the money to buy the items, she said. Though some of her clients may have had the meal before, they aren't in the position to prepare one now because they don't have a stove but cook everything on a single camp-style burner, she said.

"We're talking poor people," Rexford said. "Pumpkin pie is something we take for granted, and yet it's something they don't know."

The Moose plan to donate leftover canned goods to the pantry.

The Camarillo Family Moose Center is home to the Loyal Order of the Moose Lodge 2047 and Women of the Moose Chapter 1957.

Both are part of Moose International, a 119-year-old nonprofit organization with 1.5 million members in four countries who focus on community service.

Dinner is scheduled to be served from noon to 4 p.m. Thurs., Nov. 27 at the Camarillo Family Moose Center, 341A Arneill Road.

For more information, call (805) 484-9118.