A stitch in time

Always Quilting, located at 1660 S. Amphlett Blvd., Suite 112 in San Mateo, is offering a teen sewing class for sixth graders and older. The two-part class will be held on Tuesdays May 4 and 18 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Instructor Regina Cole will teach participants the basics of a sewing machine, like winding the bobbin and looping the thread.

While this class may seem outdated, it's always handy to be able to sew on a loose button here or there; or get a little more wear out of a favorite tee by sewing up a seam. Also, with store-bought fashion seeming so cliché and dull these days, how cool would it be to be able to make your own clothes from time to time? You'll certainly never have to worry about having the same outfit as someone else.

With a little practice, summer fashions in particular can be made for far less at home than what you might pay for the same outfit at the malls. Not only that, fashion is big business these days and if you think this might be the career for you, this is one way to find out. Additionally, with all the stress we teens have in our lives these days, sewing is a nice way to relax your body and your mind, while being productive all at the same time.

For those of you interested in attending, call 458-8580. There is a $30 class fee.

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Stop the presses and spread the news. Congratulations are due to the staff of Burlingame High School's "The Burlingame B." This top-notch publication won first-place honors in the "General Excellence" category of the Peninsula Press Club's 2003-2004 High School Journalism Awards competition. Burlingame's staff included Nina Anissimov, Meiyang Liu, Hannah Hart and Dan Rothman.

Eight Peninsula high schools participated in the event, including local high schools Burlingame, Mills, Capuchino, and Hillsdale. Burlingame took home a total of nine awards, while Mills had seven. Capuchino's Diego Del Barco and Hillsdale's Liz McKenna had one apiece.

Dan Rothman from Burlingame High School and Jessica Fields from Palo Alto High School's Verde swept both of their categories. Rothman and Fields took the top three spots for sports photo and feature photo, respectively.

The contest is sponsored by the Peninsula Press Club, Hillsdale Shopping Center and the journalism program at Notre Dame de Namur University. Thanks are due to these three groups for both encouraging and rewarding excellence in young print journalists. Awards will be presented to the winners May 5 from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Ralston Hall at Notre Dame de Namur University located at 1500 Ralston Ave. in Belmont.

As a high school journalist, I encourage all the other schools in the San Mateo Union High School District to motivate their staffs to submit stories to the Peninsula Press Club competition. And while winning is always a plus, just attending the awards ceremony is a great experience that allows various high school newspaper staffs to meet.

Another idea: It's not always easy for students from one school to know what's going on at another and school newspapers can help to build communication bridges. High school editors for next year should look into setting up a communication network between all the high schools in the Peninsula. Internet and e-mail would make this easy to do. A communication line or chat room between high school editors would allow student newspapers to report on key events and issues pertaining to all the local high schools. That way, in addition to knowing what's going on at your own school, a "World" type page would give students a glance at how things are at other schools nearby. Just a thought.

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The who's who and where they're going:

Hillsdale High School:

Scott Wong: University of the Pacific

Aragon High School:

Sarah Fraser: George Washington University

Rachel Woodside: University of California, Berkeley

Nathanael Horton: Brown University

Lesley Sciaky (former student): Loyola Marymount University

Notre Dame:

Margaret Pettigrew: University of California, Santa Barbara

Grace Kallis is a senior at Aragon High School. Her column, Graceland, highlights news from this area's high schools and other activities around town. It appears every Tuesday. If you have some news you'd like to send Grace's way, e-mail her at grace@smdailyjournal.com.