Gazing out at nearly 500 Palisades Charter High School students, Madeleine spoke shyly and in nearly perfect English. Her first words: ‘I am a former child soldier.’ Madeleine, whose last name was not released for security purposes, shared her experiences as a child soldier in the Democratic Republic of Congo when she spoke in Mercer Hall on April 28 as part of a tour organized by the Human Rights Watch Student Task Force. The Los Angeles-based HRWSTF, launched in 1999, brings high school students together to advocate for children’s rights around the world. Madeleine, now 18, spent three years in a Mai-Mai militia group, which recruited her at the age of 11. She was released from the militia thanks to Bukeni Waruzi, the executive director of Ajedi-Ka, a nonprofit organization that demobilizes, rehabilitates and reintegrates child soldiers into society. Waruzi, who also spoke at the assembly, brought Madeleine to a transition center before she rejoined her parents. He later asked her to speak out internationally about her experiences as a child soldier, though doing so made it too dangerous for her to return home. She now attends school in New York City, where she is a junior and has plans to study international justice in college. Hani Tajsar, a PaliHi junior and president of the school’s chapter of HRWSTF, met Madeleine in New York City in February as part of the Red Hand Campaign, which sought to encourage world leaders to take action against the use of child soldiers. Youth from around the world met with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and presented a book containing 250,000 red hands representing individual protesters. PaliHi collected about 2,600 of those hands. Tajsar, 16, said he was glad Madeleine could visit the school so that his peers could also hear her story. She spent one week in Los Angeles, visiting schools such as Crossroads, Santa Monica High, Valencia High and Marlborough. ‘This news doesn’t get that much media attention,’ Tajsar said. ‘It’s good to make the students aware of the issues around the world.’ Waruzi showed the students part of his 2005 documentary ‘A Duty to Protect,’ which he directed and produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He decided to make the documentary because he wanted to raise awareness through the child soldiers’ powerful stories. ‘I could have written a book about it, but I wanted to have the rough voices of the kids,’ Waruzi said. The documentary follows 15-year-old Mafille, who spent 1′ years in an armed group, and 16-year-old January, who has been in a militia group for six years and has earned the rank of sergeant first class. While Mafille was raped and does not want to return to the militia group, January describes a different experience in which she feels a sense of pride for her service. Madeleine used to be friends with January, so she had difficulty watching the documentary during the school tours. More than 20,000 children have been recruited to armed groups in the Congo, and Waruzi has demobilized more than 300 of them. The militia groups promote violence and substance abuse. They set up camp far from town centers, which makes it difficult for children to leave. In addition, the children have to sleep outside and do not have access to medical care. Waruzi brings the kids to a transition center before they are reintegrated back into society, often returning to their families. Many of these former child soldiers do not have the resources to return to school, Waruzi said. In the Congo, parents have to pay for their child’s education from kindergarten through university. One year of primary school costs about $150 a year, including fees, books and tuition. To help, PaliHi’s HRWSTF is hosting a spare-change fundraiser for Ajedi-Ka and another nonprofit organization in Colombia that demobilizes child soldiers. ‘Even with our spare change, we can make a difference,’ said PaliHi art teacher Angelica Pereyra, who helped found the school’s HRWSTF chapter 10 years ago. She and Spanish teacher Sandra Martin oversee the club. Pereyra hopes PaliHi is able to raise enough money to support the education of at least two former child soldiers. Madeleine also encouraged the students to write letters to their senators and representatives advocating change. ‘This country is very powerful,’ she said. ‘The youth are very powerful.’ Junior Joshua Pandy gave Madeleine a poem he wrote called ‘Fight for Your Life’ to thank her for visiting. A video of the assembly will be available on the HRWSTF Web site www.hrwstf.org along with a copy of Pandy’s poem.

Matthew Kadenacy likes the feel of manning a fire truck at Fire Service Recognition Day last Saturday at Fire Station 69. More than 1,000 visitors enjoyed free hot dogs and watched demonstrations that included firefighter Marc Samana jumping from an aerial ladder into air bag. In addition, Rich Wilken was recognized as the town’s new honorary fire chief.

Since opening in 1912, the Beverly Hills Hotel has remained the crown jewel of glamour and class among the city’s hospitality establishments. After all, notable guests have included everyone from Howard Hughes, Rudolph Valentino, Greta Garbo and Mary Pickford, to John and Jacqueline Kennedy, The Beatles and Brad and Angelina Jolie Pitt. Add another power couple to the list: David and Elyse Walker. Pacific Palisades-based clothing retailer Elyse Walker, with her eponymous flagship store on Antioch, and her 2008 sequel, the adjoining Elyse Walker Men, has all but put the Palisades on the fashion world map. Last Thursday, she and her husband, David, a real estate investor, were honored at the Beverly Hills Hotel by The Wellness Community’West Los Angeles (TWC-WLA), an organization dedicated to providing support, education and hope to people affected by cancer. The tribute took place at the nonprofit’s 11th Annual Tribute to the Human Spirit Awards gala. Elyse and David were honored for their continued support and fundraising for research, treatment and cures for breast cancer, and they follow a distinguished roster of honorees: ‘Spider-Man’ movie producer Laura Ziskin, actors Alec Baldwin (’30 Rock’) and Eric McCormack (‘Will & Grace’), actress Katherine Heigl (‘Grey’s Anatomy’), and former Palisades honorary mayor Steve Guttenberg (‘Cocoon’). Elyse Walker’s Pink Parties have, in four years, raised $3.7 million toward breast-cancer research at Cedars-Sinai Women’s Cancer Research Institute, where David Walker serves on the board of governors. Saluted at the affair, alongside the Walkers: long-time TWC-WLA supporters Hella and Chuck Hershson; and Nigel Lythgoe, co-creator and executive producer of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ and executive producer of seven seasons of ‘American Idol,’ as well as the award-winning charity-fest television special ‘Idol Gives Back.’ ‘Each of our honorees are extraordinary role models and dedicated supporters,’ said Ellen Silver, executive director of TWC-WLA. ‘The impact of their contributions is immeasurable.’ Actress Marilu Henner emceed the gala. ‘What I love about the Wellness Community,’ the ‘Taxi’ actress told the Palisadian-Post, ‘is that they don’t just focus on a cure, but on the total picture.’ Elyse Walker began throwing her annual Pink Party, a high-profile mix of celebrity and fashion, in memory of her mother, Barbara Yvonne Feder, who lost her struggle with ovarian cancer in 1989 at the tender age of 42. Prior to the banquet, Elyse explained to the Post how she was moved to organize her event after hearing a talk by Maria Shriver. ‘It was the most beautiful, most motivating speech I ever heard,’ she said. Last year, actress Jennifer Garner, currently starring in the romantic comedy ‘Ghosts of Girlfriends Past’ (and, as of mere weeks, a Pacific Palisades resident) top-lined the Pink Party. This year’s fundraiser is scheduled for September 12. David Walker, president and co-founder of the JRK Birchmont Investment Fund, told the Post that he felt ‘honored to be a part of this event and all of the goodness that the Wellness Community does.’ Originally from Queens, New York, the Tulane University graduate moved to Los Angeles in 1996. He and Elyse, who met at a New York bar, love living in Pacific Palisades, where they reside with sons Ryan, 17, and Kevin, 15. ‘It’s the best place on Earth,’ David said. Ryan Walker, who DJs at Bergamot Station and other Westside locations as one half of Tree Frog, with his buddy Scott Cohen, said that his parents’ honor was ‘very cool,’ and that his mother ‘knows how to balance things.’ From the dais, Henner, an author of eight books about life and fitness, proved a game and enthusiastic hostess. She also noted that after two failed marriages, she had wed Michael Brown, ‘my college roommate’s boyfriend.’ He’s a two-time cancer survivor (bladder and lung), and a keeper, she said, observing that ‘Marriage is like cooking waffles. You throw the first ones out!’ Onstage, David Walker paid tribute to his wife who was standing next to him. ‘I do not have to look very far for my inspiration,’ David said, as he gazed into his wife’s eyes, ‘for all I have to do is look at Elyse.’ Joking that he was merely Elyse’s ‘trophy husband,’ David praised his wife as ‘a fundraising juggernaut,’ the way she masterminds her Pink Party events. ‘There is no more deserving person than my wife.’ Elyse, in an emotional speech, paid loving tribute to her mother and added how appropriate it was that this event fell on the week of Mother’s Day, as ‘The Pink Party is me honoring my mother.’ Elyse was about to leave the podium when a thought crossed her mind. She pivoted back, grabbed the microphone, and, directing her comment at the emcee, she quipped, ‘Marilu, I’m going to keep my first round of waffles!’ For information on the Wellness Community, visit www.twc-wla.org.

The three members of Paul Revere Middle School’s Music Department’Lara Jacques, Vanessa (Ling) Dokko and Yosuke Miyoshi’have received a 2008-2009 Lori Petrick Excellence in Education Award. The award, which includes a $2,000 stipend, is given annually by the Palisades Charter Schools Foundation to educators within the Palisades Charter Complex. The four other 2009 winners will be profiled in upcoming issues. Judges selected the three music teachers because ‘of their inspiring interaction with, and the large number of students [600] they reach.’ When this reporter visited a recent joint planning period, it soon became obvious why music classes are popular at Revere: the teachers’ enthusiasm and esprit de corps were infectious. Between the three, they teach 18 performing groups (four of which meet during lunch). Band students, taught by Miyoshi, can participate in drum line, beginning winds, jazz band, and intro, senior or advanced band. Jacques instructs beginning strings, orchestra (including intro, senior and advanced). She also teaches symphony and chamber orchestras. Vocalists and choirs are Dokko’s expertise and include sixth-grade and mixed choir, show and concert choirs, Revere Singers and Madrigals. The three are not 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. teachers. Dokko and Miyoshi stayed after school and evenings to make live music possible for last weekend’s spring musical ‘Bugsy Malone.’ In late March, they joined with Jacques to take 150 students to the Heritage Festival in the San Francisco Bay area. At the festival, the band and choir won a silver award and the orchestra received a gold. ‘We all did really well, especially for a first time,’ said Jacques, who also accompanied the students on a tour of the UC Berkeley campus. In order to make the trip possible, the teachers helped organize donation drives, bake sales, and holiday wreaths for sale. During a Holiday Stroll in the business district last December, student groups played music and sang for tips. Miyoshi also assisted Palisades High band teacher Arwen Hernandez in last year’s Pacific Palisades Fourth of July parade. Jacques, who has a 12-year-old daughter in Revere’s vocal program, started teaching at the school in 1994. ‘I was an Army brat and lived all over the United States and Europe,’ said Jacques, who graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in clarinet performance and a master’s degree in education. Currently, she’s working on a second master’s, with an emphasis in conducting, by taking a three-summer program at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Jacques began teaching orchestra in 1998 and has applied to take the Revere orchestra to the National Orchestra Festival in Santa Clara in early June. Dokko grew up in West Covina and graduated from UCLA in 2003 with a B.A. in music education. She was student teaching at Revere when the choir teacher, Jan Smith, retired. Dokko applied for the job and was hired. Originally she had planned to teach elementary and preschool and wasn’t quite sure about middle school. ‘I was scared at first, but I got to know the kids really well and the staff was supportive,’ said Dokko, who married in June. At UCLA, Dokko and Miyoshi lived three doors from each other in a dorm. Miyoshi, who plays trombone, was in the UCLA marching and pep band. ‘I went to Alabama for football games and Michigan, North Carolina and Minnesota for basketball games,’ he said. ‘We also got to record music for two movie sound tracks.’ Miyoski graduated in 2004 with a B.A. in music trombone performance and a teaching credential and started his career at Santana High School in Santee. He taught a year before coming to Revere. ‘I was unsure about middle school,’ he said. ‘Now I enjoy it more than high school.’ Teaching in a public school can have its disadvantages, like having to rely on a 50-year-old timpani that is beyond repair and a 30-year-old piano that needs to be replaced, but somehow the teachers continue to be upbeat. When asked what they’d like to see changed, Jacques instantly responded, ‘I’d like more double basses; mine are kind of ratty.’ Miyoshi added, ‘We’d all like to see Vanessa [Dokko] have a new piano.’ Revere students range from eager beginners to those who have taken private lessons since they were five. As diverse as the teachers’ personalities are, a common thread unites them. ‘We’re all musicians,’ Jacques said. ‘We have a passion for the same things.’ Dokko said, ‘We’re all flexible. Musicians have the same mentality and are able to work together without an ego.’ Miyoshi added, ‘We all do the same job and all have the same goals.’ They are also generous with their praise, crediting the strength of the award-winning program not only to the current administration’s support, but to the 50-year music tradition at Revere.