COMMUNITY NEWS EL CAMINO STUDENT ACTORS WILL PERFORM IN SCOTLAND.

Members of El Camino Real High School's drama department will perform in Edinburgh, Scotland, in August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, one of the world's largest and most prestigious arts festivals.

El Camino Real is one of only two public schools in the nation selected to perform as part of the American High School Theatre Festival, a venue in the larger Fringe Festival.

For three weeks each summer, the whole city of Edinburgh becomes a venue for the arts as more than 18,000 different performances of music, theater, dance and comedy are presented everywhere from playgrounds to conference rooms to churches.

The El Camino students will spend two weeks in Scotland and England.

Donations to defray trip expenses can be made through drama director Sue Freitag or Principal Kenneth Lee at [phone].

Alexis Spenchian, a 2004 graduating senior and valedictorian at Chatsworth High School, has been accepted as a member of the 2005 Trojan Dance Force, USC's competitive dance team.

In making the team, she joins her sister Jackie Spenchian, who is a second-year member of the force. Both were students of the Chatsworth Dance Centre.

San Fernando Valley students Deborah Svidler and Sharon Eshaghian were among nine students from the Anti-Defamation League's Pacific Southwest Region to visit Washington, D.C., in October.

Svidler, from Woodland Hills, attends El Camino Real High School and Eshaghian, an Encino resident, attends Cleveland High School.

Their visit was part of the league's Youth Leadership Mission, which uses historic and contemporary examples of moral courage to help motivate students to fight prejudice in their own lives and communities.

Nationally, 114 students took part in the mission, in which students visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and heard various speakers, including ADL representatives.

Simi Valley High School students Jeffrey Solano, a senior, and Megan Philip, a junior, won prizes this month for their entries in the annual Reflections contest.

The theme of the contest was ``A Different Kind of Hero.''

Solano wrote an essay about a person who made a difference in his life and Philip submitted a photo of the sky over Hilo, Hawaii.

A banquet was scheduled to recognize the winners and other participants, according to the Simi Valley High School PTSA.

Students from East Valley Middle School No. 2, 15040 Roscoe Blvd. in Van Nuys, collected 254 bags of clothing and food for needy families earlier this month.

More than 30 classrooms participated in the drive, with the donated items given to Los Angeles Community Builders for distribution.

The four most successful classes - about 100 students - were rewarded with a pancake breakfast.

One of the winning classes in the food and clothing drive sold refreshments at a parents conference to raise money. Another class was organizing a schoolwide toy drive during the holiday season.

Children from the school have been involved in other community service efforts, including a school beautification drive and an eyeglass collection drive.