“CHARACTER COUNTS! Week 2002 was a rousing success,” says John Forenti, CC! coordinator for the Office of Education in Tulare County. This year Tulare County honored over 1,800 young people as Kids of Character. It is the highest number in history, easily beating last year’s 1,400 and far above the 120 of 1996, when the program began. The Visalia Times Delta highlighted a different student in a story every day during CC! Week, and at its end the paper printed the names of all the young people. The Kids of Character, Forenti noted, “come to comfort us every year like a cool breeze on a warm Valley night. They raise the standards and inspire us all to become ‘better people.’”

In addition, CC! was highly visible in Visalia, the county seat. Banners stretched across Main Street, hung from water towers, and adorned a credit union. And everywhere Visalia police cars bore stickers that read: “CHARACTER COUNTS!”