Sharing the Holiday Bounty : Annual Laguna Beach Potluck Feeds a Community’s Spirit

It had the look and feel of a big family reunion: Hundreds of people gathered beneath the sun-splashed trees, laughing, hugging one another, eating from plates heaped with turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie.

“It’s a happy time. ‘Hello, hello, how are you?’ ” said Bill Reed IV, 56, who joined in the feast at Laguna Beach’s Bluebird Park with his 92-year-old father, Bill Reed III.

This Thanksgiving Day feast might not be a reunion in the usual sense, but it brought together a kind of family--the Laguna Beach community that has joined annually for this potluck since 1987.

Though what is known as the annual Community Thanksgiving Potluck Dinner has strong ties to the group called Friendship Shelter, it is not simply a dinner for the homeless and needy. What sets this Thanksgiving feast apart is that it draws a diversity of celebrators: well-to-do and poor, young and old, large families and single people, those who can give and those in need.

“It’s a really nice feeling, the way Thanksgiving should be,” said Shazeen Mufti, office manager at the Friendship Shelter. “Those that can bring, do. Those who can’t come and enjoy the celebration.”

About 300 came to Bluebird Park on Thursday for the 12th annual community potluck, which features long tables heaped with food. The skies were sunny, as usual--the potluck has never been rained out.

Some homeless residents came, joining others who could not afford their own feast and still others who simply have learned to treat this as a Thanksgiving reunion with their community.

“My boy and I, this is our third year here,” said Bill Reed III, born in 1906 and a Laguna Beach resident since 1927, when he lived in a tent until he built his first home.

“Everyone brings a dish. Everyone eats lots of food. Once you come, you want to come back,” he said.

“It’s just the two of us,” said his son. “This is fun. It’s good for us. It gives us something to do.”

Mikhail Romanov, 58, ate his turkey and stuffing with friends near the park entrance. He was too weak from arthritis and other ills to walk down the gentle slope to join the main assemblage.

“Most of the people who come here aren’t homeless,” said Romanov, who has his own apartment in Dana Point. He came, he said, because “I can’t cook very well alone.”

The woman who helps spearhead these potlucks, Alice Graves of Laguna Beach, darted through the crowd, welcoming people, searching for supplies. She joked that she is the “disorganizer” of the event.

“This is not only free, but it’s very disorganized, and it works,” Graves said. “People come from everywhere to keep it organized.”

The tables and chairs arrived from Neighborhood Congregational Church. Friendship Shelter provided the paper goods. McDonald’s donated drinks. Several members of Aldersgate Methodist Church in Tustin drove down to help.

“I told my mom I wanted to be here today. I wanted to see smiles on people’s faces,” said Sarah Buba, 17, of Irvine, who attends the Aldersgate church. “You’re giving people stuff. You’re helping, sharing.”

So many people volunteer for Thanksgiving that Mufti at the Friendship Shelter encourages them to serve dinner on a non-holiday night, when help is sorely needed. “If only we could get them on a night other than Thanksgiving,” she said.

Despite all the assistance and all the food, no one seems to comprehend exactly how the noontime affair manages to come together, year after year.

“At 11:30, the tables were half empty,” said John Gabriels, who celebrated his 75th birthday Thursday. “But it always seems to come together so nicely.”

Graves compared the atmosphere of the potluck to that of the first Thanksgiving centuries ago in the gray chill of Massachusetts.

“That something like this can happen with so little,” she said, “is what community is all about.”