KIDS GET CREATIVE AT ARTS FESTIVAL.

Byline: Teresa Jimenez Daily News Staff Writer

Haley and Clarissa Johanns couldn't get to the dozens of arts and crafts tables fast enough. They tried to run smoothly while they balanced painted rocks and clay pots on a cardboard flat.

Haley, 8, and Clarissa, 11, said they lucked out when their mother read in the newspaper about the Children's Festival of the Arts at Conejo Creek Park. It was all there: free glue and glitter, clay and cardboard, paint and poster board.

``It's really fun. You just get to be free and do whatever you want,'' Haley said.

The sisters from Thousand Oaks and hundreds of other children with paint-smudged faces and clay-caked hands wandered around the park off Janns Road on Saturday.

The event, put on by the Conejo Valley Recreation and Park District, receives most of its funding and almost all of its staff from the Conejo Valley National Charity League, a mother-daughter organization.

About 90 teen-age girls, all members of the Charity League, volunteered to help children swirl glue and sprinkle glitter on masks, stack wood chips into miniature houses or cars, and paint cardboard refrigerator boxes set up to look like a city.

The volunteer workers also enjoyed the afternoon.

``It's fun to interact with the kids and see the expressions on their faces,'' said Amber Devine, 16, of Westlake Village.

The Conejo Valley park system has been sponsoring the event for about 10 years, but it almost came to an end four years ago when funding was cut, said Karen Lindsey, recreation services manager.

Charity League members stepped in to save the popular children's festival, chapter president Meredith Rodman said.

This year, the Charity League donated $1,200 for art supplies. With contributions from local businesses, organizers also have sold food to raise funds to buy art supplies and hire bagpipe players for next year's festival, said Jody Jacobs, chairwoman.

Theresa Sobota said experimenting in art with a background of music was a perfect experience this year for her daughter Shannon, 3.

``It exposes her to a lot of things she's not familiar with,'' Sobota said. ``It's hard to find quality entertainment for kids.''

Lindsey said the annual festival has great appeal for parents as well as children.

``Children can just come and make stuff,'' Lindsey said. ``They get to get messy, and parents can walk away from it. We clean up.''

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Photo: (color) With some help from volunteers, children cre ate their own toys Saturday at an arts festival at Conejo Creek Park in Thousand Oaks.

Jeremy Greene/Special to the Daily News