Youth Group

Student achiever: Jessica Lee, 17 School: River Hill High School Special achievements: First-place poster presenter at the Maryland Junior Science & Humanities Symposium. Participant at the National Junior Science & Humanities Symposium in Orlando, Fla. First-place senior biological sciences division winner at the Baltimore Regional Engineering and Science Fair. First-place mentored projects division winner at the Howard County Science Fair. Jessica does cancer research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the National Cancer Institute as a summer internship.

It was a day for the good kids to shine. Some brought their container gardens, illustrations and crafts to the War Memorial in downtown Baltimore yesterday afternoon, while others performed in the plaza as part of the first 4-H Youth Expo. Walter Smith, 16, and Elihu Campbell, 12, put on their best shoes and did a tap-dancing routine inspired by their hero, Savion Glover. The urban location seemed an odd place for a 4-H event. The group is traditionally associated with farm kids showing prize beef on the hoof at county fairs.

Fifteen eager children crouch in a half-circle at Bethel Outreach Center, part of a small, aging church school in West Baltimore. The youths toss playful glances at each other and bug their music teacher with chatter. They occasionally miss a beat. Mostly, they don't. Using their thighs to hold the instruments in place, they pound on the heads of ishiko, djembe and bougarabou drums. The drums shout back, filling the tiny room with a thunder that fuels the looks on the faces of their parents, proud that their children are members of the Kuumba Zulu Drummers.

Franciscan Friars will offer Lenten Evening of Reflection The Franciscan Friars of St. Joseph Cupertino Friary, 12290 Folly Quarter Road will offer a Lenten Evening of Reflection on the San Damiano Experience from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday. The experience of St. Francis of Assisi in receiving a message to rebuild the church while praying before the San Damiano Cross will be explained. There will be an opportunity to pray. The cost is $20. Registration is required. A two-day seminar, "Christian Holiness," will be offered from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 7 and 8. Catholic saints will be discussed as case studies for styles of holiness.

FOR NEARLY 40 YEARS, Glenna Krebs has been teaching baton twirling to girls (and sometimes boys). But only recently has the 65-year-old begun sharing her skills in Northwest Carroll through Taneytown Recreation Council. The council offers 10-week classes Monday nights at Northwest Middle School. "It really has taken off," said Krebs, who moved to Taneytown a little more than a year ago, of the recreation council classes. Krebs, who taught baton part time for 25 years in Baltimore County and 12 years in Harford County, began her twirling instruction at age 9. "When I was a little girl, I had dancing lessons and twirling lessons," she said.

AMONG THE most dreaded times in a young scholar's life is the day "What I did on my summer vacation" is assigned as an essay. The long summer's events either fade or seem mundane. The assignment will be less difficult for an exhausted, paint-spattered teen-age crew from Savage United Methodist Church. For the ninth year in a row, the church's Youth Fellowship will have participated in Camp Hope. The group is leaving Sunday to spend a week repairing two houses in Western Maryland. Camp Hope is a four-week work session in Allegheny County with a mission to repair the residences of elderly and poorer homeowners in Frostburg.

WHILE THEIR friends celebrated the start of Easter weekend, 20 teens from Galilee Lutheran Church's youth group began a 30-hour fast to raise money for World Vision. The young people, in grades six through 12, raised more than $2,000 for a program providing medical care in Third World countries and poverty-stricken areas of the United States. Denise Colebrook, youth group leader, said that when the idea of participating in the charity's nationwide fund-raising effort came to her attention, she was a little hesitant to suggest fasting.

HUNGER AND poverty are not topics most people willingly focus on, but this weekend they will be all some teen-agers think about. More than 65 young people from Holy Spirit Lutheran Church, St. Stephen's Reformed Episcopal Church and Wesley-Freedom United Methodist Church will go without food for 30 hours Friday and Saturday to help fight hunger and poverty around the world. The teens will join thousands of others across the United States in the annual World Vision 30-Hour Famine. Participants are asking family, friends and neighbors to sponsor them as they go without food.

Vernice Jones, a retired city teacher who worked with generations of young people at her church, died of heart failure Monday at Sinai Hospital. She was 82 and lived in the Ashburton section of Northwest Baltimore. She taught at elementary schools for 33 years in four city locations -- Joseph H. Lockerman School at Mount and Saratoga streets, Public School No. 123 at Fremont Avenue and Lemmon Street, Diggs-Johnson Middle School on Barre Street and Morrell Park Elementary on Washington Boulevard.

Greg Hladky is fighting a devastating illness, knowing that his school, church and the South Carroll community are battling right along with him.The 16-year-old South Carroll High School junior was diagnosed with acute myelogenic leukemia in December 1997. Aggressive chemotherapy did not stop the disease and he soon needed a transplant to survive. His school organized a bone marrow drive and several fund-raisers."Greg had to have a transplant to live, and we wanted to help," said senior Vicky Albright.