Newsday 12-20-2000; Page Number: A41; Section: News

By Paul Wisenthal.

CHILDREN HONORED FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THEIR COMMUNITIES:

Dreams That Made a Difference

They've been called "Millennium Dreamers" - young people who are taking action to make the world better.

Take Jamie Morales, 16. She watched as her mother, uncle and godfather died of AIDS. Seared by the experiences, she launched an AIDS awareness program to educate parents and kids in Wichita, Kan., where she lives. "Everyone may not be infected by the disease, but they are affected," Jamie said.

She has spoken to more than 1,000 youths in six school districts over the past two months about HIV/AIDS and says she hopes to travel to South Africa this coming summer. Contact Jamie at Kitten@kscable.com, or by writing to her c/o Teens HOPE Program, Health Education, Wichita School System, 201 N. Water, Wichita, Kan. 67202.

Or Michael Block of Forest Hills, Queens. Five years ago, at age 4, he witnessed his mother's beating by a deranged man on Fifth Avenue near Central Park. Deeply affected, Michael wanted to share his experience and a year later founded a children's division for the Crime Victims Political Platform, a nonprofit group that raises money for crime victims and lobbies politicians for victims' rights. Michael, 9, stuffs envelopes and helps out at the group's Queens office. He attends P.S. 144 in Forest Hills. Contact him at michaelblock@prodigy.net.

Then there's Zachary Baggot, 10, of Oceanport, N.J., who saw his hospital mate and friend Adrian Barahona suffer from a rare disease, aplastic anemia. In Monmouth County, Zachary organized a communitywide program to find a bone-marrow donor and raise funds for his friend's operation.

Zachary hasn't found a donor for Adrian but has raised $1,000, found 200 persons willing to be donors for others, and several patients have found matches. Contact Zachary at wczbag@monmouth.com. To reach the National Bone Marrow Registry, write Icla da Silva Foundation, Roosevelt Island, 1 Main St., P.O. Box 90, New York, N.Y. 10044, or click on www.icla.org or phone 212-593-1807.

These American students were among the 2,000 "Millennium Dreamers" 8-15, from 90 countries who were honored at the United Nations by Nani Annan, wife of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The program was sponsored by McDonald's Corp. and Walt Disney Co., which held a global youth summit at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida where the students met each other and shared their stories.

Another winner was 10-year-old Makenzie Snyder of Bowie, Md., who collects suitcases and duffel bags for foster kids. Last year, she attended the Paris Children's Summit, where she met foster kids. "They told me they carried their belongings in garbage bags. Garbage bags are for garbage. Kids' personal belongings belong in proper luggage," she said. Plastering her community with posters, hosting garage sales and speaking about the plight of homeless kids, she has raised $40,000 and given away 13,000 pieces of luggage and toy animals.

Contact her at www.childrento children.org or write to Children to Children, 3262 Superior Lane PMB 288, Bowie, Md. 20715.

Four years ago, Donavan Mitchem, then 7, said he felt shut out of the political process. "Kids don't have a voice in the political process in this country," he griped. He dragged his mother to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where he lives, and mounted a protest in front of the site.

His placard read "Let me in, DNC. Let me in." For more than four hours, he marched until a representative of the Transport Workers Union of America gave him a pass. It took another three hours to convince security people to let him and his mom in with one pass. His small size and lobbying with his mother attracted press coverage. Oprah Winfrey made Donavan a correspondent. With limo and camera crew, he covered President Bill Clinton's victory speech in Little Rock and attended his inauguration in Washington.

"Kids need a say in the political process," said Donavan, who attended this year's DNC in Los Angeles as Clinton's guest and lobbied there for kids' rights. Contact him at donavanmitchem@yahoo.com.

Among students cited from other countries was Jesus Tserenhihi, 15, a member of the Xavantes tribe that lives in Brazil's rain forest. Concerned that his tribe's 500-year-old culture was slipping away, he recorded aspects of its history, including its language. His CD-ROM program is a record of a mostly oral history and a celebration of his heritage.