(top) SMASH School Kindergartners Sadie McGee, 5, (left) and Jovana Perdomo, 5, (right) duck and take cover under their desks during the Great Southern California Shakeout on Thursday, November 13, 2008. (above) Kindergartner Milan Ladman, 5, (left) and first grader Morgan Jarow, 7, take cover during the drill. Over 5 million people throughout Southern California participated in the Shake Out Drill, the largest earthquake preparedness activity in U.S. history! Families, school children and business workers participated in the drill.

(top) Eighth-grader Jonathan DeLaCruz, 12, (a student from the After-School All-Stars  Los Angeles) participates in a spelling bee before the screening of 'Akeelah and the Bee,' during the sixth annual Santa Monica Drive-In at the Pier movie series on Tuesday, August 19, 2008. (above) Guest watch 'Akeelah and the Bee,' (the first of five films) on the Santa Monica Pier. Five free films in the series will be played weekly through Sept. 19. After-School All-Stars, Los Angeles (ASAS-LA), Founded by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2002, is a leading middle school after-school program provider whose programs educate, enlighten and inspire thousands of middle school aged youth each day through after school activities centered around health, fitness and nutrition; the visual and performing arts; and youth leadership and community service learning.

 

Theodora Walkow-Foster, 7, and Jason Dean Feigerle, 7, spray water onto the Watershed Diorama at the Santa Monica Aquarium during their Earth Day theme weekend on Sunday, April 27, 2008.  The diorama, which was custom made for Heal the Bay by Andrew C. Aguilar, is designed for pollution education and to illustrate storm water runoff.

 

 

 

 

 

1) Talia Yarmand,  3 1/2, (left) and her best friend Anai Herz, 4, color with crayons  during 'Raising Readers: A Children's Literacy Festival' at Santa Monica College on Saturday, April 26, 2008. 2) Jason Telanoff, 3 1/2, blows bubbles during the children's literacy festival. 3) Parker Bent sings children songs with Elias Obrist, 5, (left) and Angelina Arroyo, 5 1/2 (center) during the festival. 4) Andre Jones, 2 1/2, blows a bubble. 5)  Jason Telanoff, 3 1/2, and Violet Brooks, 2 1/2, play with bubbles 6) Families shop for children's books at SMC on Saturday.

 

 

(above) Santa Monica College student, Brad Ashtari, 23, speaks to Misuk Kwon, UCLA Student Affairs Officer during the SMC College Fair on Tuesday, April 15, 2008. There were 130 universities participating at the fair on Tuesday at SMC. (top) Dr. Chui L. Tsang, SMC President, visits with Hans Weichhart, Sacramento State Outreach Counselor, during the fair. SMC is the number one transfer school to four year colleges.

 Santa Monica Police Chief Timothy J. Jackman, reads 'What a Wonderful World' (by George Weiss & Bob Thiele) to a group of four and five year-olds at Maohr Hatorah Preschool on Wednesday, Apruil 9, 2008. © 2008 FabianLewkowicz.com

Author-designer and proprietor of The Flower Box , Brenda Berkley demonstrates how to create floral designs for the holidays during her presentation, “Flora Fusion: The Art of Zen in Holiday Floral Design” on Saturday, November 10, 2007 at Santa Monica Public Library. "Simplicity is always better," she explained during her presentation.