VILLA PARK More than 30 families here will open their homes to about 100 Marines from Camp Pendleton for Thanksgiving dinner.

Resident Rick Barnett said the Marines will be picked up in eight Hummer limousines and ferried back to the Villa Park Towne Center, where the Marines will be disbursed to their host families. In addition, the Marines will receive gift-wrapped watches and LED flashlights.

Marines on their way to 2008 Thanksgiving dinner in Villa park call family members from the inside of a Hummer limousine. More than 30 Villa Park families are hosting 100 Marines this Thanksgiving.

“I thought it would be nice to make it fun for them,” Barnett said. “That first year, I bought some watches and had “Semper Fi” engraved on them.”

Barnett, 56, said he started hosting Marines seven years ago. That first year, he went to collect Marines and realized he needed help – so he quickly got other Villa Park residents to take in service members.

“I couldn’t take them (all) home with me, because it was Thanksgiving afternoon and my wife would have strangled me,” Barnett said. “So I called some of my neighbors and they took them in.”

The Camp Pendleton-Villa Park connection went from six Marines that first year to more than 60 last year. This year’s 100 represents 10 percent of the Marines in the Home Hospitality program, said George Brown, the executive director of the Armed Services YMCA.

“Most of these Marines have finished their recruit training and then they come to the School of Infantry,” Brown said. “This is their first holiday away from home.”

Barnett, an attorney, said planning for the event begins in January.

Community donations fund the program. This year, about $25,000 was collected, with $15,000 going for the Thanksgiving event and the rest going to a Marines Secret Santa program.

“This is where the community opens up their homes and their hearts to these young Marines and treats them like their own,” Brown said. “That’s kind of what Thanksgiving is all about. …

“One year, I had 12 kids in a limo and I had seven or eight of them tell me that this was the best day of their life,” Barnett said. “It’s such a small contribution to make.”

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