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Students at Northwest High School are collecting socks, snacks and magazines to send to the United States Marines Combined Anti-Armor Team deployed in Afghanistan.

Lori Green, co-chair of the school's African American Parents' Council, said students will collect items through March. 4.

Penni Spriggs-McDonald, parent of a freshman at the school, came up with the idea after serving as a second family for first Lt. Brandon Barrett while he was at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Barrett is the platoon leader of the deployed in Afghanistan, Green said. Beef and turkey jerky, chewing gum, black sweat socks, and magazines dated after Jan. 5 are being collected in the school's main office at 13501 Richter Farm Road in Germantown. For more information about the Socks! Snacks!! Soldiers!!! drive, contact Green at 301-540-0028.

Cooking up sales to help Haiti

Students from the Quince Orchard High School basketball program and their parents held bake sales last week to raise money for Haiti relief efforts. Proceeds went to The American Red Cross for Haiti relief efforts, said Linda Dagen, whose daughter, Leah, a junior and varsity basketball player brainstormed the bake sales while watching news reports from Haiti.

Her daughter "wanted to do something. We decided it would be easy to coordinate a bake sale and our results proved us right!" said Linda Dagen in an e-mail to The Gazette.

Players from the girls' teams raised $675 during two bake sales held at a girls' varsity double header and a boy's junior varsity game. Students from the junior varsity girls' team "even took trays of baked goods around to the teachers still in their classrooms, and sold to them!" Dagen said. "It was a joint effort!"

What Happens

When ‘Opposites Attract'?

Johns Hopkins University, Montgomery County Campus, Fourth Annual High School Student Art Exhibit — Opposites Attract — will run through March 24 in the Atrium and Café Galleries at the University, 9605 Medical Center Drive, Rockville.

The quote "Opposites attract because they are not really opposites, but complementaries," by Sydney J. Harris, syndicated American journalist (1917-1986) is the theme of the show.

One hundred Montgomery County high school students representing nine schools entered the competition.

"The theme of Opposites Attract was quite a challenge for my students," said Mygenet Harris, an art teacher at Paint Branch High School. "They really had to think to come up with a strong individual concept that translated well in medium and technique. As a teacher, it was exciting to nurture these students so they could find their way."

Harris welcomed this opportunity for her students to be involved in a "real artist experience" where their work was juried and exhibited.

First Place winner was Natalie Cunningham, Thomas Wootton High School for Signal in the Snow. Second Place went to Xinhong Qui, Montgomery Blair High School, for Death|Life. Awarded third place was Michelle Hahn, Sherwood High School, for Two Worlds Collide.

Honorable Mention Awards went to Janetta Deppa, MCPS Visual Art Center at Albert Einstein High School, Jackelyn Gitlin, Damascus High School and Patrick Ngako, Paint Branch High School. Plaza Arts of Rockville donated 100 canvases to the entrants for this show.

Focus on teens

Parents of students at Northwest, Poolesville, Quince Orchard and Seneca Valley high schools are invited to Northwest, 13501 Richter Farm Road in Germantown, to learn about the 10 Laws for the 21st Century Parent, at 7 p.m. March 8.

Shaun B. Taylor, will teach parents how to monitor their children's text messaging and computer use, said Beth Kennington.

Kennington, corresponding secretary for the Northwest PTSA, said Taylor, a paraeducator at Shady Grove Middle School in Gaithersburg, "is a very motivational speaker." For more information, call Kennington at 240-994-1400 or Susan Burkinshaw at 301-758-6995.

Education Notebook accepts short news items and photographs about events, people and good news at your school. We feature fundraiser, event and meeting announcements, student and staff achievements, requests for donations, new education initiatives and anything else that goes on in your school. Please send us story ideas at least one week in advance of the event. Contact Melissa A. Chadwick at mchadwick@gazette.net, fax at 301-670-7183 or 9030 Comprint Court, Gaithersburg, MD, 20877.