More than 400 fourth- through sixth-graders gave classroom speeches in the first round of the inaugural Giles County 4-H CHARACTER COUNTS! Public Speaking Contest during January and February, 2003. Extension 4-H Agent Joseph Donaldson reports that all speeches focused on a person of character or one or more of the Six Pillars.

The winning speakers came to the county contest on February 24, attended by about 300 youths, parents, and others. “Some day, wherever you are in the world,” Donaldson told the audience, “when people hear ‘Giles County, Tennessee,’ they'll say, ‘That's a place where character counts.’”

The Giles County CC! Coalition has been meeting since November, 2002, and this event was its first countywide project. The group, Donaldson noted later, “plans to build on its success to realize its mission of making Giles County, Tennessee a place of character.”