Last year, the U.S. component of the group raised about $152 million, representing about 20 percent of the network’s private funding, according to information from the group’s Web site. So even charity bike rides like the one Nick and Kyle are doing help raise funds for the nonprofit.

The Hodder brothers were on the road on Friday, on the third day of their four-day bike trip and could not be reached for comment. But Outtakes will check back with them to find out how much money they raised and how they are feeling after 200 miles on the road.

Doctors Without Borders is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971. The organization provides aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect or catastrophe, primarily due to wars, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care or natural disasters.

Meanwhile, I’m off on a bike trip of my own _ to New Mexico. I’ll be back after Labor Day. Keep sending in those news tips and blog ideas. KB

In the spring of 1994, Itamar Moses was a teen-age journalist working on the school newspaper at Berkeley High School. Now, at the ripe old age of 31, he’s a nationally recognized playwright who has produced five plays, including “Yellowjackets” which opens at Berkeley Repertory Theatre on Sept. 3.

The play, set around the halls of Berkeley High School, focuses on what happens when the school newspaper publishes a story about an on-campus fight, including the fact that the boys allegedly involved in the brawl are African American.

The fact that race is included at all angers students and teachers and there’s a  proposed boycott of the school newspaper, some reasoning with the teachers by the editor in chief (a character based loosely on Moses himself) and an examination of what happens when race and class collide.

The events in the play are based on some actual events that took place when Moses was in school,  he said.

On Monday, Moses, who lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, a place he calls “the new Paris,’’ was back in his native Berkeley to talk about his two loves _ play-writing and journalism _ with a group of 25 aspiring writers and journalists from 14 schools across the Bay Area. Moses wants to encourage more young people to take an interest in theater and writing.

`It’s important to make (young people) aware that theater is and can be by, for and about young people,’’ he said Tuesday.

The half-day workshop also included a panel of journalists, including freelance theater critic Chad Jones, (http://www.theaterdogs.net/ )San Francisco education Chronicle reporter Nanette Asimov and yours truly speaking to teens about why journalism is important in the community, how it’s changing, what constituents editorializing, where journalists find their stories and other trade secrets we rarely divulge.

In a time when nearly 6,000 newspaper journalists nationwide have lost their jobs in recent months, it was inspiring for me _ a 15-year veteran of newspapering _ to see 16 and 17 year olds pondering a career in the print and Web media.

The workshop was the brainchild of Genevieve Michel, a 19-year-old Albany High School graduate who is headed into her second year at New York  University. She’s studying arts management and politics, a major she created herself.

Before she left for college she did an internship at Berkeley Rep and when she returned for a summer job, she was charged with finding some programs to link to the play “Yellowjackets.”

“ We wanted to get a chance to bring kids to the school of theater who wouldn’t normally come,’’ she said. “Because the play is about high school journalism, it seemed like a good chance to bring (professional) journalists and students together to talk about ways journalism can be used as a tool to change the community,’’ she said.

Michel said the teen journalists said they learned a thing or two, and at the end of the day they decided to form a network to stay in touch and share ideas during the upcoming school year. Who knows, maybe one of them will break a story that will someday become a play.

Last Friday, Delia Solomon, a 16-year-old Berkeley High School student, did something that few people will ever attempt: she tried to swim 21 miles across the English Channel from England to the shores of France.

She did not succeed. But she said she may try again.

“I was disappointed that I didn’t completely finish. But at least I made an attempt,” she wrote on her blog

http://deliaschannelcrossing.blogspot.com/

“After I mull things over a bit, I’ll decide where I want to go next. I may swim it again, and I’ll definitely know what to do differently. I may try to swim across Lake Tahoe. But whatever I do I know that I will have my family and friends to support me, which I greatly appreciate. Thank you to everyone for your comments of support, it means a lot to me,” wrote Delia, who will be a junior.

Delia and a friend (above) go out for a practice swim.

 Since 1875 when Matthew Webb first donned a 10-pound bathing suit and fueled himself with eggs, bacon and beer, 772 people from all over the world have succeeded in swimming from England to France, according to the Channel Swimming Association, which is the official body that monitors the swims.

Delia’s boat pilot was Reg Brickell, an experienced pilot with the association. She met Brickell at 9:30 a.m. Friday at the harbor and said getting on the boat “was an amazing feeling.”

“All this hard work completed, and now it was reality, I was going to swim the English Channel. The ride over to Shakespeare Beach was as smooth as glass. (An) observer commented how it was like a mill pond. Nearing Shakespeare Beach I saw two other boats with swimmers starting off. That excited me. I wasn’t going to be the only one out there trying to swim.”

With that, Brickell sounded a horn and Delia dove into the water. “It took a few strokes before it really sunk in. I was REALLY doing it, I was really swimming the English Channel. I began to get into the groove, putting one arm in front of another moving myself forwards towards France,” she wrote.

The calm didn’t last. The wind picked up, there were waves, two to three-feet high and the water was cold, about 62 degrees, according to her blog.  She said she saw seaweed and jellyfish. “After four hours the wind had not subsided so the waves kept shoving me around.”

Delia was swimming with friend and Berkeley High school graduated Leore Geller, 18,  and at that point the pacer got into pace. “It was kind of scary because they kept wanting me to move closer to the boat, but the boat was pitching around like it was a little toy.”

At around 7 hours I puked because I had ingested so much salt water,” she wrote. But then came a silver lining:  “I saw the French shoreline. That made me perk up and keep moving forward.”

But the waves were “seriously huge” and made it difficult to swim. Sometimes the boat would tip so far it seemed as if it was going to capsize.

Her pacer had been getting in and out of the water pretty consistently since the 4-hour mark, but after a while Delia said she realized she hadn’t been in the water in again. “I figured she was taking some extra time out, which of course was fine. But apparently when she had wanted to get back in, the pilot said no.”

“I decided not to worry about it. It started to get dark and I switched on my lights. The waves were growing larger by the minute with no sign of slowing down. At ten and half hours my dad told me that the pilot wanted to pull me. Of course, I was like “WHAT?!!” and when he asked me if I wanted to keep going for a bit I said, “yes.”

Delia wrote that the last 30 mintues were the worst.

“I  was crying in my goggles and trying to swim as fast as possible despite the waves. At this point it was completely dark, yet I still was not cold. I kept hoping that if I swam faster and kept going I would be able to make it. At my 11-hour feeding they (her folks) pulled me out. They wouldn’t let me keep going. I got onto the boat reluctantly. The ride back was horrible.”

What followed was seasickness and a nap in a very uncomfortable position and the stench of fish on the dock. Delia said she went to bed quite upset and feeling like she was still moving.

But I hope Delia is proud too. What she did took courage and stamina and guts. And if nothing else, she’ll definately have the best “what I did on my summer vacation story” to tell back in Berkeley High classroom. And I know the student journalists at `The Jacket’ are planning big story on her attempt.

Tomorrow night it is expected that more than 35 million people nationwide will leave the lonely glare of their television sets and walk outside and meet their neighbors.

Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of National Night Out. The idea is to get people, police, community groups, businesses, elected officials and civic groups to come to block parties and events in an effort to “meet and greet”  and heighten crime, drug and prevention awareness. That type of thing is always needed, but 2008 has been a particularly bloody year in Berkeley and Oakland, with eight homicides already this year in Berkeley and 81 in Oakland to date.

The idea is to also strengthen neighborhood spirit and police and community partnerships. Again, always needed.

Events in Berkeley will run from 6:30-9:00 p.m. with the bulk of events getting going around 7:00 p.m. Last year’s National Night Out celebration involved community members, city, town and county employees and staff, law enforcement agencies, fire personnel, civic groups, businesses, neighborhood groups and local officials from more than 10,000 communities in all 50 states and U.S. territories.
“National Night Out is truly a feel good” event,” said Sgt. Mary Kusmiss in Berkeley. “It began as a crime and drug prevention event, but has evolved into an overall celebration of community.” 

www.cityofberkeley.info/police
Come out and join em. Your TV will be there when you get back.