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Mother, daughter head up community holiday dinner

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Contributed by: Kristopher Daams on 11/23/2007

On a cold, Thanksgiving morning 20 years ago, Marcia Goldstein and her daughter woke up at 5 a.m. and made the short drive through the dawn to the Guadalupe Community Center in Canoga Park for one of the center's first holiday community meals.

As it turned out, it was the first out of 20 Thanksgivings Goldstein and her daughter, Dara Laski, have volunteered at the annual event.

"There was no one really in charge of things outside the kitchen, so I became in charge of decorations and seating, etc.," Goldstein said. "I'm not even sure we had tablecloths those first years."

A couple years after that 1987 Thanksgiving, Goldstein and Laski, no strangers to volunteering their time, captained the annual community meals, soliciting donations, interfacing with community groups and waking up at 5 a.m. each Thanksgiving to cook one of the many donated turkey breasts.

The mother-daughter duo got involved in the annual Thanksgiving event as part of a community project with West Valley PALS and the Woodland Hills Optimist Club. Laski was 19 at the time.

A couple years later, the person who originally ran the event had children and wanted to spend the big day with his family.

"I said, 'I'll take it over for one year until we find someone to take it over,'" Laski said.

The pair might have given it up a year or two later, but their style is all about having that family feeling.

"We tell everyone that this is the feel that we want. We don't have any room in our home, so we invite everyone to the Guadalupe Community Center," Goldstein said. "And that's how we want them to feel - like they are guests at our home."

During the past 20 years, the annual Thanksgiving celebration at the Guadalupe Center, a social service center run by Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, has grown from 200 people to 1,500. And the volunteering mother-daughter duo have been there every year.

The community event serves the less fortunate and local residents who might not have anyone with whom to celebrate the holiday.

Laski estimates the event serves up 400 pounds of turkey breast each year.
The West Hills residents could recall only a couple times when the forces of nature tried to ruin Thanksgiving - one year had a little drizzle and another saw the notorious Santa Ana winds.

"It just ripped the table settings to shreds, but everybody was fine with the meal. Nobody lost any turkey," Goldstein said.

The Guadalupe Center is at 21600 Hart St. in Canoga Park. For more information, call (818) 340-2050.

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