Baby, look at you now!

By: MARGOT JACKSON - For the North County Times | Tuesday, October 5, 2004 10:13 PM PDT ∞

Once they were babies lying in the nursery at Pomerado Hospital. Now, some 16 to 17 years later, they're working at the very same hospital where they were born.

Yep, Laura LaManna, Chelsea Provenzano, Megan Reed, Galya Raz, Jennifer Dolatshahi, Jamie Hill and Leslie Cortez all spend hours at the hospital helping others. They volunteer for the emergency department, in the gift shop or distributing newspapers and magazines, on the medical and surgical floors and at the lobby reception desk.Ý

The Student Volunteer Program is part of the Pomerado Hospital Auxiliary and adult volunteers Barbara Altman and Vicki Dubina serve as co-chairs. The student volunteers come from area middle and high schools and as Altman says, they feel connected to the hospital.Ý After all, they were born there. For more information on the volunteer program, call (858) 613-4659.

Here come the bands: Mt. Carmel High School in Rancho Penasquitos is the traditional host for the annual tournament of bands, an all-day event that this year will fall on Saturday, Oct. 30.

This is the biggest yearly fund-raiser for Mt. Carmel High and the $25,000 to $35,000 raised will help pay for band uniforms and travel expense. It's the 28th annual event and the school year's first large competition in the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association.

More than 31 high school bands in Southern California will be performing, including the Rancho Bernardo High School Band under the direction of Tom Cole, who originally started the tournament when he worked at Mt. Carmel High School in 1977. The Mt. Carmel band will not be in the competition but will perform as the last band of the evening in its impressive uniforms. It will play Joyce's 71st New York Regiment and music from the movie, "The Abyss."

How to talk to your teen: A four-part series of classes to help parents better understand and communicate with their teenagers begins at 6:30 this evening at Bernardo Heights Middle School. The cost for the entire series is $39 per parent or $69 per couple.

Professional counselor Lauri Wong says she will help parents learn to talk effectively with their kids about topics such as sex, drugs and alcohol. The program will guide parents in ways to take the stress out of parenting and teach tips on encouraging better behavior from teens. The classes involve role-playing and are a big help in getting through to kids who have reached an age where talking to their parents may not be their first choice. For more information, call the Poway Unified School District at (858) 668-4084.

RB BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK: Margaret McKenzie, Ruth Bradley, Eleanor Eisler, Frances Feltes, Marie Hornseth, Betty Smith, Armand Gurian, Alvin Pierce, Florence Leroy, Constance Moore, Frances Schwolow, Gertrud Beach, Doris Gimpelson, Peggy Maguire-Secor, Jeanne Morrissey, Hal St. Clair, Paul Zeltner and Fernando Arraut.

Contact Margot Jackson at margwrites@sbcglobal.net.