LAKEPORT – In Lake County we like to support our schools, our youth, our community.

That support is not limited to but includes events like Sober Grad Night, Every 15 Minutes and Challenge Days. These types of events teach our youth that they have choices and they have the power to make the right choice.

We also have programs such as AVID that help youth choose the educational future they want, for many this means college. But what if that wasn’t true? What if they didn’t have the power to choose? What if our community would not, or could not, provide the support they need?

What if our community was like Baltimore? In Baltimore African-American boys in particular are not told to choose between drinking and driving, or between bullying and friendship, they are told that for them it comes down to what they want to be wearing by the age of 18; prison orange, a suit in a coffin, or a high school cap and gown.

It seems an easy choice but in a community where 61 percent of Baltimore’s African-American boys will not graduate from high school and 50 percent will go on to jail, the cap and gown of high school appears a pipe dream kind of choice.

The movie “The Boys of Baraka” reveals the human face of these true-right-here-in-America statistics.

Far from leaving us despondent, however, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's award-winning documentary walks us through an extraordinary school where four boys from Baltimore will be offered a life line through the Baraka School in Kenya ("baraka" means "blessing" in Kiswahili, the native spoken language of eastern Africa). What the boys do with this “blessing” will amaze and inspire you.

“The Boys of Baraka” will be showing on the large movie screen at United Christian Parish (UCP) on Friday, July 9, at 6:30 p.m.

There is no charge to attend the movie but a non-perishable can or cash donation to our community food bank would be appreciated.

The Food Pantry is particularly in need of pasta, pasta sauce, pancake batter and syrup, canned fruit and jelly. The Food Pantry provides one week of food to individuals and families in need and is open Tuesday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

UCP is located at 745 North Brush Street in Lakeport. You may call 707-263-4788 if you need more information.

The grant supporting the Writers Circle comes from Poets and Writers Inc., through a grant it has received from the James Irvine Foundation.

The Writers Circle is a free public writing workshop held at the Lake County Arts Council's Main Street Gallery, 325 N. Main St. in Lakeport, at 6:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month.

The Writers Circle attracts many emerging writers as well as more seasoned authors. Some people come only a few times, and others show up every month.

Many participants have been sharing parts of books and other long works they've been writing; others share short stories, memoirs, essays or poems.

The writers are between 16 and 80 years old, and come from all over the county.

LAKEPORT – Auditions for the second annual Lake County Singer/Songwriter Festival will take place on July 11 at Rancho De La Fuente in Lakeport.

For information and audition time please call 707-277-7713 or 707-331-8319.

The festival is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 29, at the Soper-Reese Community Theatre in Lakeport.

The Southern Comfort Band will perform on Saturday, July 3, 2010, in Clearlake, Calif. Courtesy photo.

CLEARLAKE – Jerry Toler and the Southern Comfort Band will play their unique brand of classic country and old time rock and roll music for the Lions Club barbecue on Saturday, July 3.

The event will be held at Austin Park following the Independence Day weekend parade.

The music will kick off at noon.

This function is an all-day fund raising event to benefit Lions Eye Foundation and other charities.