Watching movies is a favorite pastime for many Americans, but some Indiana teens are watching films for a different purpose.

Meg's Gifts, an outreach program of Kids First, the Coalition for Quality Children's Media, sends videos to critically ill children in hospitals across the nation. What makes it unique is that youth volunteers are the ones who rate the films and deem them appropriate for different age groups.

Three such evaluators are Jamisha Gardner, 16; Delores Jones, 17; and Nichole Pressler, 17, all of Fort Wayne. "I think (we) identify quality children's videos, and I think that that's really good 'cause kids need to watch good things so that they're going to be good people when they grow up," Nichole said.

Meg's Gifts, established in 1996, donates 28,000 videos and CD-ROMS to more than 200 hospitals and related institutions throughout the country. Mardi Griffin Clemens, the executive director, founded Meg's Gifts in remembrance of her daughter, Meg, who died of leukemia.

The mission of the program is to improve the quality of life for children spending lengthy amounts of time in the hospital. "Oftentimes the children feel so poorly that they cannot be involved in other activities that children who have more well-being can do. And sometimes they're alone, and there's no one with them, and so (watching a movie) becomes really like companionship and part of their healing," Clemens said.

The process of evaluating tapes is a group effort. "The jury system is so fascinating because it's 300 adults and 3,000 children all over the country," she said. "(Evaluators) are in libraries and classrooms and day-care centers in every part of the United States, from the Bronx to Beverly Hills."

The girls became involved through one of their teachers at Paul Harding High School. "Our child-development teacher had us watch a movie, and then she let us evaluate it," Jamisha said.

The movies are categorized by age group. "There's 0 to 2, 2 to 6, 6 to 11, and 12 to 18," Delores said. Jurors evaluate movies within their own age group, except for the 0-2 category, which is rated by day-care and child-development workers, who observe toddlers watching the films and make note of their reactions.

The Fort Wayne girls evaluate movies in the 12-18 group. During their child-development class, they watch movies submitted by producers who want the Kids First endorsement. As they watch, the girls fill out rating forms on the films. "They cannot contain sexually explicit scenes or language, or any physical or verbal abuse," Jamisha said. "Or they can't discriminate against your race, gender or religion, or (contain) condescension toward children."

After screening the films for this adult-oriented content, the jurors can voice their opinions on the quality and appeal of the movies. The rating system is good, better and best, and best is three stars.

According to Clemens, a one-star rating would be assigned to a film that was of good quality but appealed to only a narrow audience. Two stars is still good, but not exceptional quality, while three stars is an extremely good production that caters to wide array of people. These ratings are then translated into "Qualified," "Endorsed" and "All Star" titles by the coalition.

Once a video is approved by the jury and garners the Kids First approval, it can be sent to the hospitals. However, if there is disagreement among the evaluators about the quality of a film, "the final say is in New Mexico, at the coalition office," Clemens said. But that is rare.

"There is such agreement across the country," she added. As tastes in movies vary from person to person, it might seem that the evaluators would allow their own opinions to influence ratings. But as Nichole explained, that is simply not the case. "You gotta look at if it makes the standards or not. You're looking for the children, not for your own opinion," she said.

Most of the time, it's an enjoyable experience. "They're movies I would enjoy," Delores said.

Sometimes their experience as evaluators rubs off on the girls' personal lives. As Jamisha explained, "Now when I see certain stuff on TV, I evaluate it. If I don't approve of it, then I won't let my younger brothers or my little sister watch it."

The success of this program lies in the hands of all the volunteers who keep it running. "First of all, the generosity of the people who give their time to evaluate this material is very important and very valuable," Clemens said. "Then, the generosity of the producers, who not only give us the material, they have to ship it to us."

By the time the average child reaches the seventh grade, he or she will have witnessed 8,000 murders and 10,000 acts of violence on TV, according to research reported by the American Psychological Association. Yet when a child is in the hospital, parents have little time to screen the films their children might see.

Meg's Gifts eliminates this worry and helps make a difficult situation easier for everyone.

"We can't take away the pain and we can't take away treatment . . . but (these movies) can bring something of the beauty of life, the vibrance of the imagination, into their lives," Clemens said.

REPORTERS: Emily Christie, 12, and Kelly Daniels, 11.