Talent Show

The "Taste of Downtown Glendale," benefiting Glendale Healthy Kids, will take place from 5:30 to 8 p.m. May 9. Stroll in and out of Glendale's top restaurants, delighting in an array of sumptuous samples along the way. Italian, Cuban, Japanese, Middle Eastern and American cuisine are on the menu. Glendale Healthy Kids provides medical, dental and mental-health care to low-income, underinsured children in the greater Glendale and Crescenta Valley areas and has been helping families since 1994.

Hoover High School students are in the final quarter of the school year, with summer right around the corner and many activities ahead. Hoover students are recognizing Human Rights Week this week. Students are learning about many of the human atrocities throughout history, as well as discussing human rights violations and injustices that still exist today. Hoover?s annual Open House is from 6 to 8 tonight. Because the Hoover campus is still under construction, maps will be available to direct parents to different classrooms.

Youth may be wasted on the young, but talent isn’t — at least it wasn’t at Glendale High School’s annual variety show on Friday night, where student singers, dancers and musicians converged onto one stage to exhibit their skills. More than 25 students’ acts, ranging from belly dancers to solo drummers took part in this year’s show, which was organized by the school’s dance and drill team for the eighth year in a row. The show is a way for the dance team to try out their routines with an audience, and a way to showcase the talents of other Glendale High School groups, said Kelly Palmer, the director of the drill and dance team.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints PTA Beautification Day gets boost The Verdugo Woodlands Elementary School PTA Beautification Day got a much needed boost from Mormon Helping Hands of the La Crescenta Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . The school’s PTA had planned their annual Beautification Day, anticipating about 35 volunteers to do the work. Fortunately, Mormon Helping Hands offered to help the school as its quarterly local service project, adding another 140 sets of “helping hands” to the project.

All Crescenta Valley cluster PTA members are invited to attend the next Cluster Meeting at 7 p.m. March 30 at Dunsmore Elementary School. Glendale Unified School District Supt. Michael Escalante is the guest speaker. Classrooms are available at 6:30 p.m. or earlier for individual schools wishing to have their unit meetings prior to his presentation. Call Dunsmore PTA President Dee Reik at (818) 957-5455 to reserve a classroom. LINCOLN ELEMENTARY Lincoln will celebrate its 80th birthday celebration from 2 to 5 p.m. April 21 with a formal birthday presentation, including cake, from 5 to 6 p.m. on the school's playground.

Robert Chacon A group of little kids with big hearts spent part of their day Friday playing music for residents of one local retirement home. Ten music students from Dunsmore Elementary School played classical minuets from Bach, Dvorak, Chopin and Boccherini for about 30 senior citizens at the Mountview Retirement Home. Before they took the stage, they handed out Valentine's Day cards for the residents. Among the students, there were piano, violin, clarinet, cello and trumpet players.

o7The Glendale YMCA Quarterback Club, in its 63rd year, meets Tuesdays at the Elk's Lodge in Glendale. The following are odds and ends from the first meeting of the year.f7 Local flavor: A new rule in 2000 finally allowed the Glendale Community College football team to recruit players outside of the Glendale Unified School District, enabling the Vaqueros to look at athletes from more than 50 schools in the Los Angeles area. Several years after the rule was implemented, few locals found their way to Glendale College.

Several items will be discussed at the city's Arts and Culture Commission meeting Thursday. Winners of the "I Love My Neighborhood" poster contest and Talent Show will be announced, followed by consideration of the Public Art Opportunity project for the Pacific Community Center. Reports will also be given on the arts and economic impact study and the move to Brand Studios, as well as the arts and culture program supervisor's monthly activity report.