By Keri Brenner, IJ reporter

The "Summer of Peace" anti-crime youth activities program was a big winner yesterday at a bustling neighborhood festival at Pickleweed Park Community Center in San Rafael's Canal district.

Nearly 50 children and teens signed up for the Summer of Peace free classes which start June 17 and run through Aug. 16, said Solange Echeverria of Matrix/California System of Care, one of many agencies at the program's first kick-off event.

"We all have a vested interest in keeping our community safe, said Echeverria, who lives in the Canal area and whose daughter attends school there. "We can't leave it up to the police and the power broken."

"We live her," she said. "We ought to claim it."

The Summer of Peace kickoff event dovetailed with a festival, "My Canal International Block Park" that also included a neighborhood cleanup and a photo exhibit, "Faces of the Canal," by Nita Winter . About 250 people attended the day's events, which were punctuated with a barbecue cookout lunch.

Canal Healthy Neighborhood, a community leadership development program, organized the block party activities, ranging from Canal area musician Cesar Romero singing cover of Elvis Presley tunes in Spanish to a kiddie trampoline free for all inside a huge inflated lion-shaped playhouse.

But the Summer of Peace kickoff event held the most passion for many at the festival.

"It's wonderful to see all the community groups come together to serve our youth," said Angela Arenas of Marin County Mental Health Children's System of Care, another participating agency. "We even had a couple of older kids, around 21 or 30 years old, come by to see if they could help out."

More young people are expected to sign up this week for 21 classes including girls volleyball, boys and girls soccer basketball, flag football, trips to ballgames, bicycle repairs and rides, arts and crafts, girls rock climbing, "Radio Canal" DJ training, Café Oasis clerk and cashier work, film and video production, and summer jobs training.

Other activities are weeklong junior firefighters' camp for boys and girls, self-defense classes and Camp Chance, a residential camp for Davidson Middle School students.

"I will probably sign up for volleyball and Radio Canal," said Anabel Rodriguez, 14, who will be starting San Rafael High School in the fall. Anabel and her brother, Juan Rodriguez, 13, of Davidson Middle School, were two of many youth volunteers yesterday who helped sign up their friends and classmate for the Summer of Peace program.

At least 17 agencies are participating in the program, credited with lowering the level of neighborhood crime activity last summer, its inaugural year, said David Donery, Pickleweed Park Community Center supervisor.

"Things changed from just hangout activities to organized activities," Donery said. Many of the classes this year sprang from teen focus groups held in January, he said.

Donery also plans to develop a Canal Youth and Family Council in the next few weeks.

"We're trying to get the community involved in developing the (Summer of Peace) program," he said.

Summer of Peace is operated by a combination of donations and in kind services from the participating agencies. This year it received a $10,000 grant from the San Francisco Foundation; last year, the Marin County Board of Supervisors donated $5,000.

Donery said he is applying for a grant to continue the program throughout the school year as well.

"The best thing about today was seeing all the people come out and be interested," said Jessica Parent of Community Violence Solutions Prevention Program, who led a youth self-defense class during the festival. "It was great to see all the faces, and all the energy here today."