Youth Programs

Curbing vandalism in Woodlawn and helping to instill community pride in Catonsville are among the goals behind nearly $300,000 in crime prevention grants awarded by Baltimore County police last night to needy neighborhoods.Police Chief Terrence Sheridan distributed the grants -- almost $200,000 in crime prevention funds and $100,000 for youth programs -- after County Council members approved the funding this year.The youth grants -- up to $5,000 each -- are a new feature in crime prevention community funding, Sheridan said.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke abruptly canceled his highly publicized gun buyback yesterday, saying he feared it was being sabotaged by an enterprising group looking for an easy profit.Halfway through the trade-in program that proved both popular and controversial, the mayor called it off after police warned him about a scheme to pawn off cheap guns.He refused to provide details of what he described as "an attempt by a small group of people to flood the program with either recently purchased or nonfunctioning weapons," saying the matter was under police investigation.

SPORTS LEGENDS CAME TO Baltimore from all over the country and scored thousands of dollars for the city's recreation and parks youth programs. The Legends weekend began with a golf tournament at Pine Ridge, where area business people paid each to play golf with athletes like former Dallas Cowboy Hall of Famer Tony Dorsett and his former teammates Pete Johnson and Ron Springs; former Baltimore Colts Lenny Moore, John Mackey, Tom Matte, Bruce Laird, Bert...

ONE OF THE REAL tragedies of life in Baltimore is the glaring inadequacy of city recreation centers in some neighborhoods that need them the most. None of the 69 rec centers is generously funded by city government, which usually means those unable to finance youth programs through participant fees simply do without those activities.Children in the poorest neighborhoods suffer the most. Without a recreational outlet, the lures of the street become more enticing. Police Chief Thomas C. Frazier recognizes the link between juvenile delinquency and inadequate youth programs.

Most Howard County groups got all the funding they requested this year from the Columbia Foundation, which gave $171,000 in operating grants to charitable organizations for calendar year 1996.But in light of recent cutbacks in government funding and donations, officials from many groups worry that the foundation may be be hard-pressed to meet the demands from all those that need help in coming years."Everybody from the government to individual donors are tightening their belts and cutting back more and more," said Pam Grady, director of Voices for Children, a Columbia-based advocacy group for abused and neglected children.

Robert J. WeissBusiness consultantRobert J. Weiss, a business management consultant who was active in Kiwanis International, died Sunday at his home in Timonium after a heart attack. He was 60.Mr. Weiss had owned Daruma Management Inc. for about 10 years. Earlier, he had been president of ENSEC Service Corp., which provides security and janitorial services in federal buildings.The New York City native served in the Air Force in Japan in the 1950s before moving to the Baltimore area.He was a board member and a former president of the Towson Kiwanis Club, and had been chairman of the Baltimore Science Fair for many years.

THE COLUMBIA ASSOCIATION'S proposed budget for fiscal year 1997 comes as an anomaly in otherwise difficult financial times for public institutions.With an emphasis on youth programs and traditional recreation activities, the association's budget continues its trend toward deficit reduction without increasing its assessment against residents. New programs -- including three new summer camps, three new youth programs and expanded Kidsport and midnight basketball programs -- are being fueled mainly by an increase in income from memberships and fees.

Most big cities in America have recognized that the ability to provide good youth programs that keep kids positively motivated and off the streets can be the difference that prevents viable neighborhoods from becoming turf for teen-age gangs.That's why Police Chief Thomas C. Frazier got together with the Recreation and Parks and Housing and Community Development departments to reopen and operate the Carroll Park rec center in southwest Baltimore. His community policing approach places greater emphasis on youth recreation programs as a crime deterrent.

By moving to sever its contract with the nonprofit corporation that runs the five municipal golf courses, Baltimore wants to get more of the money generated by greens fees and cart rentals for youth recreation programs, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said yesterday.In comments that echoed his move to gain control of funds raised for the Artscape summer festival several years ago and over the convention board last spring, Mr. Schmoke also said that Baltimore Municipal Golf Corp. needed to be more accountable to his administration.

Miami -- As a child, Junior Seau slept on a cold concrete floor in the garage of a shack in Oceanside, Calif., stuffed between a dishwasher and some cleaning items.He once lived in a neighborhood where drugs were sold on almost every corner and police answered calls for domestic arguments daily, not just on weekends. Gangs? Seau wished the local Boys Club had as many members.So on a day when Seau was bombarded with questions about his San Diego Chargers being 19-point underdogs against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIX, the inside linebacker from Samoa was at peace with himself.

Northeast Baltimore teenager Sanchel Brown developed a passion for all forms of dance, from African to tap, at a local recreation center that set her upon her current path to college. But she worries that kids in her neighborhood may be denied the same opportunity because of budget cuts at City Hall. "They complain about the children always making trouble, but we don't have anything to do that's affordable," said Brown, a rising senior at Baltimore City College who is looking to apply to colleges around the state and major in dance.

The leaders of the city's Catholic, Jewish and Muslim faiths have a plan to turn Baltimore's summer into the "summer of peace." But they complained Wednesday that the mayor is making their efforts difficult because of plans to close recreation centers and pools and curtail library hours. Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien mentioned the issue in passing in his remarks after meeting with city officials on preventing youth crime, but when questioned he openly leaped into the political fray and called for the city's chief executive to reverse course.

Promising a hunger strike until their demands are met, about 40 city high school students and young adults rallied at Baltimore's Inner Harbor yesterday evening to protest the City Council's rejection of $3 million in funding for programs that would pay youths to help peers in need. The protesters gathered at the harbor's amphitheater, then marched peacefully a few blocks to the Legg Mason plaza, where they chanted slogans and listened to speeches. The group planned to spend the night at a nearby church and repeat the routine daily without ingesting anything but water and juice.

Despite falling revenue and a budget that looks bleaker by the day, Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration announced yesterday it had identified more than $2 million in additional money for youth programs. By far the largest infusion of new money, $1.5 million, would be directed to community schools, which place social services and other programs inside city school buildings. And $250,000 would help pay to assign senior volunteers to schools. The announcement of additional city funding for youth programs came a day after the administration announced it would forgo a 2-cent property tax cut in its $2.94 billion budget - a $5.4 million savings for the city - but officials said the two decisions were not related.

Free clinic -- Hall of Fame coach Morgan Wootten (above) and his son, Bishop O'Connell High School coach Joe Wootten, will lead a free basketball clinic from 12:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Feb. 17 at Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City. Admission is free, and registration is not required. The first part of the clinic will focus on drills and fundamentals for younger players and includes player participation. The second part of the clinic will focus on preparing middle school players for high school basketball.

After Chris Carter met professional bowler Parker Bohn III last year, his star-struck mother, Ginny Carter, told him not to wash. After all, he had just shaken hands with one of the biggest names in bowling. "I don't think that before that day they knew what it meant to play with Parker Bohn," she said of Chris, 16, and his brother, Kyle, 18. The Freeland residents were looking forward to mixing with some of bowling's top stars again this weekend at the Professional Bowlers Association Wild Turkey Bourbon East Region tournament at Forest Hill Lanes.

An influential Baltimore citizens group is asking city officials to use more of the city's budget surplus to promote after-school programs for children. The group, Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD), is lobbying for $5.9 million of the surplus to be earmarked for in-school programs and community-based youth programs. So far, city leaders have said they will set aside $3.4 million for in-school programs. Mayor Martin O'Malley has said a large portion of the $59 million surplus needs to be used to cover overspending by some city agencies.

For David W. Hornbeck, it's not that far a cry from the tough urban schools of Baltimore and Philadelphia to those of Lima, Peru, where children grow up in poverty, and drugs and violence are commonplace. Hornbeck served 12 years as Maryland state schools chief and six as superintendent in rough-and-tumble Philadelphia. Now he's back in Baltimore at the nerve center of a worldwide network of organizations devoted to improving the lives of boys, girls and young adults. Hornbeck is the new president and chief operating officer of the International Youth Foundation, a 14-year-old philanthropic organization that awards money to youth programs - many of them politically sensitive - in 53 countries, yet has little visibility in its hometown.

Despite traditional images of smoky bars and late-night jam sessions, jazz is a natural fit with children, saxophonist Hayes Greenfield says. Greenfield will bring his Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz show for young audiences to Columbia this weekend as a guest of the Candlelight Concert Society. "I love jazz," he said by telephone from his home in New York, "the fact that you can improvise, you can put your own imprint on that tune." Children respond to that creativity, he said. A video recording of one performance shows kids dancing free-form, waving their arms and kicking out their legs, tapping their feet and clapping their hands, and being invited onstage to offer their own "bah bo bah dee bah do" sounds of scat singing.

In a school gym somewhere near you, Howard County's amateur basketball season is well under way with, it would seem, more youth players than ever but something of a decline in adult play. The largest single program is being conducted by the Western Howard County Youth Basketball Association, which has about 2,000 players - two-thirds or more of them boys - competing in 16 public school gyms ranging from Fulton to the south to Mount View Middle in the north. That figure of 2,000 is about even with enrollment last winter, said association President Pete Geoghan, of Highland, in his second season leading the program.