GROUP WORKS TO KEEP TEENS FROM GANGS.

Byline: Jason Kandel Staff Writer

RESEDA - Many children come to the park's playing fields to get away from the gang violence. But for some, the gang violence sometimes manages to find them.

Miguel Anguiano remembers clearly the three times he's been shot at in the playing fields at Reseda Park.

The 16-year-old recalled his near misses Wednesday night with about 50 children from Keep Youth Doing Something who gathered at Reseda Park to celebrate the New Year.

The children, ages 12 to 17, sat on benches in the park's recreation center feasting on turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and rice as rap music played on a boom box. They played bingo for prizes and sang karaoke.

And some remembered their harrowing brushes with violence.

A carful of gang members drove by about a year ago and unleashed a hail of bullets into the grass and trees in the park. It was Miguel's first near encounter with a bullet, he said. Nobody got hit.

A similar incident happened several months later when Miguel was at the park again. No one was hit.

The third time, Miguel and several friends were hanging around near Reseda Park when a car drove by.

``I remember seeing a guy pull out a gun,'' said Miguel, a junior at Reseda High School. ``I told my friends that he was going to shoot, but nobody believed me. Then we heard a window break. We ran. My friend got hit in the ankle.''

Miguel's friend recovered from the injury. But the lingering effects of gang violence will forever haunt him.

He, like many teen-agers in Los Angeles, is fighting hard to stay busy with after-school sports programs to stave off gang violence.

But it is hard, KYDS workers said.

Every Wednesday and Friday night, police park near Reseda Park's softball fields to keep the gangs away.

About a year ago, a boy was shot during an evening softball game at Humphrey Park in Pacoima.

Sandy Kievman founded KYDS in 1991 as a way to give children extracurricular activities in a positive environment.

The $800,000-a-year program is funded through federal grants.

Today, more than 1,000 children use the fields and gyms during after- school hours from 5 to 9 p.m. at Humphrey Park in Pacoima, Sun Valley Park, Reseda Park and Delano Park in Van Nuys.

But Kievman and others continue to work hard to keep gang violence from encroaching on the playing fields.

``It's getting better,'' Kievman said. ``But it's still pretty difficult.''

For many, the playing fields in the parks are a temporary respite from abuse at home or peer pressure.

Rita Vazquez knows. After two years of working with the children as a coach, she has learned what it means to play on the fields.

``They come to me with a lot of problems,'' she said. ``The moment they are here for those two hours or so they want to be happy.''