Among the multitude of CC! activities in the Poway schools:

• Park Village Elementary -- Teacher Ricardo Cecena and his staff took a CDS in July 2004. "I just want to tell you that CC! has made a positive difference in our overall school climate," he says. "We have seen a decrease in the amount of disciplinary problems schoolwide and parents have also noted that they like being able to use a common vocabulary when they talk with their children. Thank you for all of the great ideas that you presented at our last seminar. They have truly made a difference at our school."
• Creekside Elementary -- Student support specialist Michelle Wiese runs a club that meets after school and works on the Pillars throughout the year. The club sponsored a pet caring contest, in which students drew pictures or included photos of themselves with their pets and wrote a paragraph on how their care for them. These works went on display in the multipurpose room. In the fall of 2004 classes made 145 Thanksgiving cards and distributed them to an assisted living home in town.
• Garden Road Elementary -- This staff started the 2005 school year wearing CHARACTER COUNTS! T-shirts on dress-down Fridays. In the spring of 2005, the kids began ordering them
• Pomerado Elementary -- The newsletter highlights a Pillar each month, posts it on the bulletin board, and hangs banners in the multipurpose room. Staff members wear CC! T-shirts and students pass a beautifully drawn mural as they enter the school.
• Westwood Elementary -- The school has rewritten its discipline plan and rewards program to reflect the Six Pillars, and includes character messages in its communications with parents. It also held a "Character Rocks" assembly with Phil Baker. In the library, Six Pillar posters adorn the walls "and we refer to them all the time," says librarian Barbara Chappell-Brown. She also reads to students and asks them whether the characters in the stories exhibit the Pillars. "I'm so glad I participated in the CHARACTER COUNTS! program," she says. "It has enhanced my life."