For CHARACTER COUNTS! Week ’99, students at Carlos Rivera Elementary School performed the "Six Pillar Shuffle," collected items for the Child Crisis Center and coordinated a CHARACTER COUNTS! Walk (parents, teachers and students walked past performing school children). The collaboration inspired organizers to submit a proposal the next week to the El Paso Community Foundation. The result: a $3,000 grant.

Since then, the program at Carlos Rivera Elementary has received national attention. Interviews with students, parents and administrators were featured as part of a "Profile of Compassion" video, which was aired during opening night of the 2000 Republican National Convention.