TEENS TAKE CHARGE IN COMMITTEE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 18, 1993                   TAG: 9304160228
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
TEENS TAKE CHARGE IN COMMITTEE
Last year, Roanoke's Youth Advisory Committee welcomed students from schools around Southwest Virginia and gave them tips on how to start a similar committee in their own communities.
The committee members, all teen-agers, helped organize Roanoke's city-sponsored Student Government Day, when high school students were invited to visit and learn about city hall. They honored high school seniors at a luncheon and presented former mayor Noel C. Taylor with a Washington Redskins quilt.
The committee held a talent show to raise money for families of troops in Desert Storm. And it raised money for other organizations including Toys for Tots.
The committee, coordinated by Roanoke's Youth Planner Marion Crenshaw, plans activities for young people, like its members, in the Roanoke Valley. And this year, the group is planning to make it just as productive.
"We go higher and higher with new ideas and try to accomplish them," Jamelle Jones says. The Patrick Henry High School sophomore joined the committee four years ago.
"Each year we lose seniors, but we always have the right kind of people who work and want to accomplish [things]. We can't solve everything but we try . . . [but] there's nothing wrong with trying."
It's a misconception that teen-agers don't care about their communities, Crenshaw said. Many do care, but they need the opportunity to get involved.
The Office on Youth offers that chance. As an advocate for young people, she said, the office encourages teens to stay in school with the hope of increasing the number of high school graduates.
There is a segment of the teen community that is not involved in crime and is concerned about the drug problem and the increasing teen pregnancy rate, Crenshaw said.
The Youth Advisory Committee is a mixture of black and white, young men and women working together to make a difference for themselves.
There are about 18 active members who meet twice a month to organize dances and events where teen-agers can "have a good time and don't have to worry about getting into trouble," Tim Beatty, 17, explained.
One of the committee's newest ideas is to develop a role-model program that would match members with youngsters in the community.
A college-bound senior at William Fleming High School, Beatty says the committee could teach younger teens not to give in to peer pressure and to spend more time with books instead of sports. And, "respect parents," he said. "Always."
"We want to reach those less fortunate," adds Peter Simon Lewis, a ninth-grader at Fleming. Children from poor families often believe "drugs is an easy way out, but they don't understand that it's not the best way," he said.
Echoing the sentiment of their coordinator, committee member Mac McLean complained that too much money is spent on cleaning up the problem instead of preventing it.
"If we get more kids going to drug-free parties then who'd be going to the parties with drugs?" said the sophomore at Patrick Henry High School.
The youth committee was formed in the early 1980s as part of the Office on Youth. Participation has dwindled over the years, and the active members are doing what they can to get more teens involved.
Most members heard about the committee from friends or from fliers in the guidance office of their schools, and in turn they are encouraging their peers to join.
Says McLean: "It's really nice having all these friends who want to get down and make the world better."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB