High Life / A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : Mater Dei Program Wins Award

Mater Dei High School’s Christian Service Program was one of several winners in the 35th annual Disneyland Service Awards, held recently at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

The Santa Ana school’s program, which saw 1,750 students donate 46,000 hours to charity, finished first in the “accomplishment by a youth group” category and received $7,000.

Receiving a special award of $15,000 each were the Orangewood Children’s Foundation, which supports a home for abused and neglected children, and the American Red Cross of Orange County, honored for the work of its high school volunteers with homeless children and in preparing local schools for natural disasters.

Disneyland bestowed $300,000 in awards to 63 Orange County charities. More than 460 groups were nominated.

Century High School celebrated its third birthday and its first year with a graduating class with a voter-registration breakfast Friday.

The idea of Steve Howard, a government and economics teacher at the Santa Ana school, the event included speakers who talked about the rights teen-agers attain when they turn 18, including the right to vote. Food was provided by Ralphs, Alpha Beta and Albertsons grocery stores and Carl’s Jr.

“There is only one thing about which I am certain, and that is that there is very little about which one can be certain.”

--W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)