Girls Club

The 2011 Marvels Fall Classic basketball youth tournament for middle school teams will be held Saturday, Nov. 19 at the Laurel Boys and Girls Club, 701 Montgomery St. Team registration is $200 for double elimination. Registration deadline is Nov. 11. Winners receive a trophy, bags, T-shirts and more. For more information, go to http://www.marylandmarvels.com or call James at 301-500-4612.

Registration set for baseball and softballThe Savage Boys and Girls Club will conduct registration for the 1993 baseball and softball season from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Grace Christian Church in Savage.While registration for most age groups will be ongoing, players 15 to 18 years old must register on Saturday. If enough players ages 15 to 18 do not sign up that league will be canceled.During registration, the Savage Boys and Girls Club will be selling jackets and gym bags. Unlike in previous years, the club will not sell raffle tickets for these items.

LANGLEY PARK -- A religiously and racially charged dispute on one of Maryland's most gang-ridden streets is triggering a turf war of David-and-Goliath proportions. Pitted against each other are the small and financially struggling Langley Park Boys and Girls Club and the Archdiocese of Washington. The Boys and Girls Club, which has a predominantly black membership, occupies 3 acres at the center of the dispute in a Hispanic neighborhood in Prince George's County that is notorious for Mara Salvatrucha, a violent Central American youth gang known as MS-13.

Until recently, Darrell Waddell, 16, and Kevin Baldwin, 15, say they had no place to hang out but the streets. The teenage boys live in Brooklyn Homes, a sprawling public housing development in South Baltimore with 500 homes and more than 1,000 children. Yesterday, they played bumper pool as music thumped in the background. Younger children swarmed around them, playing pool (or attempting to), pingpong and air hockey. Nearby, two children watched The Little Rascals. The Brooklyn community center was officially christened a Boys & Girls Club of Metropolitan Baltimore yesterday, making it one of three clubs the national group will have opened in less than a year in an effort to boost its profile in Baltimore and provide youths a safe space to hang out and benefit from its education, prevention and other programs.

Halloween open house - Hosted by From the Heart Doggie Daycare, Sat., Oct. 29, noon-5 p.m., 8574 Laureldale Drive. Door prizes, dog costume contest, photographs and nail clinic for dogs. Refreshments served. 301-725-3647, http://www.fromtheheartdogs.com. Halloween Spooktacular - Sponsored by the city of Laurel, Sat., Oct. 29, 2 p.m. sharp, Robert J. DiPietro Community Center, 7901 Cypress St. Entertainment, food, costume judging with prizes. Come dressed to be judged.

The Harford County Boys and Girls Club has hit upon an idea that is making a difference in the academic outlook of some members of the club. The bright idea is Robomaniacs, a team of five 11- to 13-year-old members of the Boys and Girls Club who are assembling, programming and operating robots for design demonstrations. The team gave a demonstration of its skills for backers Thursday at Vitali's Restaurant in Edgewood. This program identifies children who are typically underperforming academically, organizers said, but who gain strong motivation in math and science skills through participation in Robomaniacs.

In July, Christopher Harris of Joppatowne attended a game at Ripken Stadium with the intention of enjoying a summer evening at the ballpark, but little did he know that his attending the game would result in his winning a single-family home in Cecil County. Harris' boss at the local Mars Supermarket gave him tickets to the Aberdeen Iron Birds game on July 27. After arriving at the stadium, Harris, 25, bought a $10 raffle ticket from the Boys and Girls Club of Cecil County, which was selling the tickets for a drawing to win a single-family house.

A 28-year-old employee at a newly opened Boys and Girls Club in Annapolis has been charged with raping a 13-year-old girl there, police said yesterday. Joey D. Wise, an assistant program director at the club, was arrested Thursday and charged with second-degree rape, sexual solicitation of a minor and other offenses, Annapolis police said. The girl was alone with Wise at the club, in the 100 block of South Villa Ave., about 11 a.m. July 29, the day before the club was to open, when Wise told her he wanted to have sex with her and she agreed, according to charging documents.

Annapolis' Boys and Girls Club had expected to get $40,000 from the city's housing authority for providing programs to nearly 300 children this year -- but might not get it because the club didn't have a contract with the authority. In the past, the club and several other businesses had handshake deals with the authority, a federal agency that oversees the city's nearly 1,100 public housing units. But the new authority board and director, who took their positions during the summer, say they cannot honor the informal agreements.

City children jumped rope, played basketball, wore chef's hats and ate heart-healthy wrap sandwiches yesterday as they were introduced to a new summer initiative designed to educate children about healthy living. Seeking solutions to obesity, the American Council for Fitness and Nutrition unveiled its pilot program -- Summer Fun, Food and Fitness -- to the children of the Pleasant View Gardens Boys and Girls Club on East Fayette Street. The council has joined with the Boys and Girls Club of Central Maryland and Baltimore International College School of Culinary Arts to offer an eight-week program, which began yesterday at the East Baltimore club, that will emphasize active living and nutrition.