LENDING A HELPING HAND EAGER STUDENTS SPEND SPRING BREAK HELPING OTHERS.

Byline: Mark Kellam Valley News Writer

Many local teens spend their spring breaks playing video games, riding skateboards or hanging out with friends at the mall.

Some students, however, are spending their vacation time helping others.

Three sophomores at Viewpoint School in Calabasas traveled to New Orleans during their spring break, March 27-31, to help the Boys and Girls Club repair two houses.

The house where a group of at-risk boys were living before Hurricane Katrina is still being repaired. The three local students - Rod Firestone, Josh Craft and Hunter Carlin - pulled up the ruined carpeting inside.

The house where a group of at-risk girls had been living must be torn down. Boys & Girls Club officials asked the local teens to pull weeds and mow the lawn because there's still vandalism in the area and they want the house to look like someone lives there.

The houses are in the Midcity area of New Orleans.

During their stay, the local teens also went bowling with a group of kids from the Boys & Girls Club and made Easter baskets for the youngsters.

Firestone, Carlin and Craft said they were shocked by the devastation that remains in some areas of New Orleans.

``Nobody realizes how bad it still is down there,'' Carlin said. ``You'd expect it to be better, but it isn't.''

Craft said one moment that stuck with him was when they turned on the lights in the boys' house and the room became illuminated. A boy who was with them began dancing around with joy. The local teens found out that this was the first day the house had had electricity since the hurricane hit - about seven months earlier.

Firestone said the greatest lesson he learned during his New Orleans visit was the value of helping others. ``Even the slightest bit of help makes a difference to some people,'' Firestone said.

Craft said he's supported charities in the past, but it was always taking part in a race or event to raise funds.

``This was more hands-on,'' he said. ``I got to see the benefits of what I was doing.''

At Canoga Park Presbyterian Church, the youth group did several projects April 10-14, the week L.A. public schools were on spring vacation.

On Tuesday, youth group members helped the Family Rescue Center, which is on the church campus, reorganize its portable storage structure. In storage are many donated items made available to local needy families.

The youths took everything out of storage and replaced the shelves inside the structure. Then they returned the items, making sure they were organized and easily accessible.

The Family Rescue Center has helped about 1,400 area families with food and clothing as well as computer classes and medical screening services, said Joel Valle, coordinator of the center.

Baheej Saoud, 13, of West Hills and his brother, Ramzy, 10, helped clean out the storage structure.

Baheej said he and his family strive to be charitable throughout the year. At Christmas, his father and mother, Nabeel and Hania, always give money to charities. Baheej said he donated the money he received over the holidays to hurricane relief.

Maegan Scott, 17, of Canoga Park was also helping clean out the storage structure. She said she takes pride in knowing she's helping local families. ``I like helping people who need it more than we do,'' she said.

During the rest of their spring break, the Canoga Park Presbyterian youths volunteered at the Los Angeles Mission on Wednesday, helping prepare for its Easter celebration, said youth pastor Andrew Greeley. Then they went to the Santa Clarita Food Pantry on Thursday and helped organize food items.

A large group of teens from the Valley went to Mexico over their spring break to build houses for the needy. During the week of April 3-7, the group built several two-room houses in Acate, a poor, isolated village in Mexico. The teens and adults went to Mexico through Amor Ministries.

Among the Amor group were Doug Moranville, Joe Peredez, Carl Eduorde and Arie Vasseghi, all students at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks.

``I'm amazed to see how people here live,'' Moranville wrote in a fax from Mexico to the Valley News. ``I find myself thinking about how lucky I am to have as little as I do because it is much more than what they have.''

``It was worse than I thought,'' Vasseghi wrote in his fax. ``But I saw a land with potential (and) with a little bit of TLC, it can be gorgeous.''

Several other Valley youths from First Presbyterian Church of Granada Hills also went to Mexico over spring break through Amor Ministries. They were: from Northridge, Grace Shin, James Chang, Bradley and Randall Van Every; from Granada Hills, Kathleen Johnson and Michele Kallunki; from North Hills, Kevin Cabrera and Sean Doherty; from Van Nuys, Dayana Gomez.

Students at Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills helped local less-fortunate families in preparation for their Easter break, April 14-21.

They took part in two projects during Lent. In one project, the students gave up things like fast-food hamburgers and sodas, and donated the money they would have spent on those items to the Rice Bowl program.

They also took part in a 30-hour fast and had their family and friends sponsor them.

Bob Warren, director of community service at Alemany, said the two campaigns raised $22,000 last year and he expects the same amount, or more, to be raised this year.

Seventy-five percent of the money raised goes to fight hunger overseas, Warren said. The remaining funds stay in the Valley, providing food to 24 families in the Valley over Easter weekend.

On April 12, about a dozen Alemany students helped package the nonperishable food items designated for local families.

Among them was senior Rollie Carencia of North Hills, who said one of the highlights for him is seeing the appreciative expressions on the faces of the people receiving the food. He also enjoys the camaraderie the project creates. ``I like how it brings the school together,'' he added.

Alemany sophomore Elizabeth Reyes of Sylmar said she enjoys helping the needy because it can make a difference in their lives.

``They realize they're not alone in the world,'' she said.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Josh Craft, left, Rod Firestone and Hunter Carlin, sophomores at Viewpoint School in Calabasas, clean up the yard outside a house in New Orleans that was severely damaged during Hurricane Katrina.

(2 -- color) Janelle Nazario, a senior at Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills, sorts food items to be packed up and delivered to local needy families over Easter weekend.

(3 -- color) Baheej Saoud, center above, 13, is joined by Laura Straub, 12, and Chris Ruvalcaba, 13, all members of the youth group at Canoga Park Presbyterian Church, in reorganizing items that had been inside a storage structure on the church campus. The structure is used by the Family Rescue Center to store items that are made available to local needy families.

(4 -- color) Maegan Scott, 17, a member of the Canoga Park Presbyterian Church youth group, takes an old shelf from a storage structure used by the Family Rescue Center. Members of the youth group replaced the shelves as part of a community service project over spring break.

Mark Kellam/Valley News