FOR THE KIDS : Stamped Passport to 4 Hours of Collecting Fun : Children will have an opportunity Saturday to learn the ins and outs of an interesting hobby during the Third Annual Youth Stamp Fair in Ventura.

With Nintendo, baseball cards, soccer, and television all vying for a kid’s precious time, are there any boys and girls into stamp collecting these days?

Come around Ventura’s Anacapa Middle School during the lunch hour Mondays and you’ll see a dozen or so students eating sandwiches and gabbing about their latest stamps.

On Saturday, the stamp club is co-sponsoring the Third Annual Youth Stamp Fair at the school, 100 S. Mills Road, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (They’re getting some help from the Ventura County Philatelic Society.)

The last fair drew 50 to 60 children who crammed into the school’s library for the event and came away with information about collecting stamps and more than a few stamps. All for free.

This year, fair-goers will pick up a “passport” that will direct them to five stations where different stamp-related activities will be set up, according to Ken Weber of the society.

Children might learn how to soak stamps to remove them from envelopes without tearing them. At another table, they might find out how to store stamps. At probably the most popular station, they’ll have their pick from a pile of hundreds of stamps contributed by the society’s members. They’ll get to create and color a special envelope design and possibly win a prize. There will be other prizes too, including one for guessing the number of stamps in a jar.

When they leave and present their stamped passport, they’ll be given packets of U.S. and international stamps. They’ll also leave with information: how to start a collection; make a stamp album; find out which subjects (trains, planes, animals, etc.) or countries to collect; and how to identify the country a stamp is from.

Children from Anacapa’s stamp club--like sixth-grader Jessica McClurg--will likely be on hand to help fledgling collectors. Jessica has been collecting since she was about 7. She has about 300 stamps, the most valuable being a 100-year-old stamp depicting Christopher Columbus.

Jessica said her mother turned her on to the hobby. Another new member, Heidi Fischer, 11, got interested after writing to a pen pal in Fiji.

Ventura stamp collector John Weigle has been guiding the club for the past four years. During the informal meetings, he usually talks about some aspect of collecting, like how to soak the stamps. At the end of the meetings, he hands out 10 U.S. or 10 foreign stamps.

On this day, he had a box with hundreds of stamps he dumped on the table for the children to peruse. The stamps, mostly United States stamps, were donated by the society, and the students grabbed as many as they wanted.

What stamps do they like to collect? There doesn’t seem to be any one type of stamp that is a hot item, although flashier stamps issued since the 1950s and ‘60s seem to be more desirable, Weigle said.

The club apparently is the only one in Ventura schools, and may be among a few in schools nationwide.

For those interested, here are a few tips. The U.S. Postal Service has limited quantities of stamp collecting kits for as little as $2.50. Children can pick up a free philatelist catalogue that comes out periodically during the year.

During October, the Oxnard Library, 251 S. A St., has on display a stamp exhibit compiled by members of the Ventura County Philatelic Society. There’s another display, at the Wright Library, 57 Day Road, Ventura, also running through October.

The “Nightingale,” an audience participation play, is the fall children’s production offered by California Lutheran University Drama Department, beginning this weekend.

In this adaptation of the classic fairy tale, the nightingale and the audience attempt to cure the emperor of his greedy, selfish ways. The production is also sponsored by the American Assn. of University Women (Thousand Oaks branch).

Showtimes are Saturday, 1 p.m., Preus-Brandt Forum at CLU; Sunday, 1 and 3 p.m., CLU; Oct. 23, 1 p.m., Media Creek Middle School, Agoura; and Oct. 24, 1 and 3 p.m., CLU. All tickets are $3.

Details

* WHAT: Third Annual Youth Stamp Fair.

* WHEN: Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

* WHERE: Anacapa Middle School library, 100 S. Mills Road, Ventura.

* ETC: For more information on the fair or the Ventura County Philatelic Society, call 488-9303.