HELPING CHILDREN–Sherry Silva will be a featured vendor at the Conejo Valley Kiwanis Club’s holiday boutique from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday at the Oak Park Community Center, 1000 Kanan Road. The event will raise money for The Giving Tree, which provides holiday gifts for disadvantaged children in Ventura County. Holiday shoppers will find plenty to do at the Conejo Valley Kiwanis Club’s Holiday Boutique from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sat., Nov. 21 at the Oak Park Community Center, 1000 Kanan Road, Oak Park.

While their parents browse for holiday gifts, children can be photographed with Santa and participate in art activities. Also, shoppers will help spread holiday cheer because proceeds from their purchases and a raffle will benefit the Kiwanis’ service fund and help provide holiday gifts to disadvantaged children through The Giving Tree project.

The free event will feature 26 vendors selling skin care products, jewelry, clothing, toys and other merchandise. Santa will attend from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Raffle tickets will be sold for $5. Each vendor has donated a $25-value prize. One raffle winner will receive all prizes.

“The shopping dollars people would already be spending can be spent at the boutique and help others at the same time,” said Rhonda Clure, Kiwanis president and boutique chair.

The Giving Tree

For more than two decades The Giving Tree has been run at area malls by volunteers with the Children’s Services Auxiliary, a project of Ventura County Children and Family Services. Each year volunteers collect donated toys to distribute to hundreds of children in the county’s foster care system and to thousands of other underprivileged local youths.

More than 10,000 children were served last year, and the need is expected to be greater this December, said Auxiliary volunteer Annie Barker.

Barker pointed out how stressful the holidays can be for parents who want to provide gifts for their children but who are struggling to provide food and shelter.

“Unfortunately, we live in a consumer age, where children feel it if they’re not receiving from their families,” Barker said. “We want all children to feel like they’re participating in the holiday so that they feel special.”

At the Giving Tree booth, a small Christmas tree is decorated with ornaments that list the age and gender of individual children so that people may purchase appropriate items or gift certificates. Volunteers, including area residents, high school students, Scout troops and other organizations, work at the booth for several weeks before the holidays, accepting drop-off donations from the public. Donations are also accepted at any Ventura County Fire Department station.

To obtain the toys, parents are given vouchers, which they bring to a building that’s been converted into a toy store by the Auxiliary. With the help of volunteers, parents choose age-appropriate toys for their children.

“We want the gifts to be given directly from the parents rather than from strangers. It helps with the family relationships,” Barker said.

The Giving Tree will be on the second floor of The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks beginning Mon., Nov. 30.

To volunteer or make a donation, e-mail annie@barker.nu.

Conejo Valley Kiwanis

Formed four years ago, the Conejo Valley Kiwanis is a fairly new group with 20 members. The holiday boutique is one of its major fundraisers, said Clure. In addition to the Auxiliary, money is raised for the club’s service fund, which benefits local causes.

This is the club’s third year holding the boutique and the first time it will be at the Oak Park Community Center. It was previously at the Thousand Oaks Inn. Club members had participated in the center’s Halloween carnival last month and thought the center might be the perfect venue to attract families and to encourage participating businesses to support the community.

Club members volunteered at The Giving Tree’s mall booth last year. They also help the Auxiliary deliver birthday balloons, cards and gifts to foster children year-round.

“These kinds of things really make a difference,” Clure said. “They see that somebody out there cares.”

The group is seeking new members. Participants don’t have to live in the area. Some members work in the Conejo Valley, which is why the group meets during lunch hours.

“People want to be there, build friendships and find things to get involved in that really speak to them,” Clure said. “These people have the biggest hearts of anyone I’ve ever met.”

The club meets at 11:45 a.m. every Tuesday, except the last Tuesday of the month, at El Torito restaurant, 449 N. Moorpark Road, Thousand Oaks.

For more information about the boutique or Kiwanis, visit cvkiwanis.org.