The South Florida Sun-Sentinel honored an elementary school student who rescued a friend from a canal and an all-around good-guy high schooler as CHARACTER COUNTS! kids in April 2005.

Tommy McAllister, a second-grader at Coral Reef Elementary in an unincorporated area of Palm Beach County, saw a friend slide down an embankment and into a canal. "I just helped him out," Tommy said. "I got to the side of the canal and grabbed his hand and pulled him out."

"He doesn't brag or anything," said Debbie Jiran, guidance counselor at the school. "He does things because he knows it's the right thing."

Eric Staunton, a senior at Boynton Beach High, goes out of his way to aid others. "If he sees another student struggling with grades, understanding a math problem or chemistry problem, he'll pitch in and say, `What can I do to help you?'" guidance counselor Jad Davis told the newspaper.

Eric says helping others simply makes him feel good. "I just try to do the right thing," he said. "I just try to help out as many people as I've been able to, not only in academic life."