Gilbert Public Schools implemented a Saturday class to reinforce the Six Pillars. Aimed at discipline-referred students, the program serves as a "boot camp, an intervention before discipline problems escalate."

A component of the course is a worksheet entitled “Self-portrait,” where students draw themselves both as they perceive themselves and as others may. "How you judge yourself and how [you judge] others are not always the same," one 13-year-old student told the Arizona Republic in December 2005. "I think it's helped.”

Rock music was throbbing everywhere as people picked their way through aisles of vendors selling quilts, jewelry, sculptures, and more at the Character Rocks Street Fair on Sunday, November 13, 2005. The event celebrated the role of CHARACTER COUNTS! in the Poway Unified School District, according to the North County Times, and thousands attended.

CC! is "so much in the fiber of our school district," that the Poway Chamber of Commerce sought to infuse it into the fair, said chamber CEO Toni Kraft. On one of the two stages, students gave a presentation about CC!.

In addition to celebrating CC!, the fair honored Poway's role in rock history, entertainment coordinator John Riley told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "World-famous rock bands including Blink 182, Unwritten Law and Louis XIV all hail from Poway," he said. "These bands have sold millions of albums, sold out thousands of shows around the world and have been all over MTV."

CHARACTER COUNTS! Mid Shore entered a float in the 2005 Olde Tyme Easton’s Christmas Parade with the theme: “Wrapped Up in Good Character." Students from the CHARACTER COUNTS! Club at Easton Elementary School were “gifts” under the tree, wrapped in the Six Pillar colors. The skirt around the base of the float showed the Six Pillars, and Christmas music played from under the tree as the float circled the town. "This was an excellent way to reach the public!" said Talbot County community coordinator Susan M. Luby.

Trevor and Tyler Harvey of Beaverton now have a year's free tuition at the Oregon Gymnastics Academy (OGA) after winning a CHARACTER COUNTS! contest. Both children had cut their hair to donate to Locks of Love, a nonprofit which provides hairpieces to disadvantaged youngsters suffering hair loss from medical conditions. The children also helped another nonprofit, Loaves & Fishes, deliver hot meals to homebound seniors 60 years and older. "We had to drive to people's houses and I liked getting lost," said Tyler.

"These two kids can't believe how wonderful people think they are," said Jenn Bolger, marketing manager for OGA, a Gold Medal Children's Activity Center. "They.have this look like 'doesn't every kid do something for somebody else?'"

Runner-up Jayme Vincent of Hillsboro will receive a $50 tuition credit for December. The finalists were Ian Brock, of Aloha; Connor Cawthorn of Beaverton; Susan Manaloor, of Portland; and Emily Rose Vincent, of Hillsboro. Each will receive a $10 gift certificate to the OGA Pro Shop. Evelyn Lopez of Aloha earned an honorable mention. OGA director Laurie Sunada and girls team coach Heather Faucera said they hoped this program would "encourage students to continue community goodwill projects each month year-round."

CHARACTER COUNTS! is part of the daily routine at Nikiski North Star Elementary. Each morning everyone recites the CHARACTER COUNTS! pledge during school-wide announcements led by the principal. Classroom teachers use CC! slips to recognize students who demonstrate one of the Six Pillars.

In addition, the school has created a new segment in its newsletter called "Profiles in Character!" which tells of one student each month who has displayed extraordinary character. Recent examples include students who picked up litter along the roadway, helped a teacher who'd fallen on ice, and used their allowance money to buy a tricycle for children in a Chinese orphanage.

In December 2005, six students from the school represented CC! at the Kenai Peninsula Borough School Board meeting. Each read a brief definition and wore a sash in the color of the Pillar he or she represented.

"CHARACTER COUNTS! continues to be a positive program here at Nikiski North Star Elementary," says Wally Hufford of the school.

A new CC! program called "We Are All Relatives" is bridging cultures in Bennett County. It uses American Indian legends to teach character to Indian children, and the county school district has launched it in at least five schools.

Some 70 percent of elementary principal Belinda Ready's pupils are American Indians. "Having stories students are familiar with will make the lessons more relevant," she said.

Cecelia Fire Thunder, president-elect of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, said values are crucial to her people and welcomed the new CC! project. "We live side-by-side in Bennett County, and yet we hardly know each other," she said. "I know something about white people but not enough."

Teachers and elders from reservation schools had asked for materials that make CC! more obviously relevant to American Indian traditions, project leader Kari Fruechte told the Rapid City Journal. The result is a set of age-tiered lessons for K-12, tying each of the Pillars to American Indian values. There are classroom activities and discussion guidelines.

Here is an example: In the legend "Boy Who Lived With His Grandmother," villagers reject a dirty orphan with sore eyes. But later he marries a chief's daughter, and "fish people" heal his eyes and give him great gifts. He becomes a highly-valued member of the tribe. The moral: Respect and fairness will help you look beyond appearances.

The South Dakota 4-H Foundation is implementing and assessing the project, with the aid of a $120,000 grant from the Bush Foundation in St. Paul. Teachers will evaluate the impact of "We Are All Related" over the following three years.

Participating schools include White River, Stanley County, Enemy Swim Day School, Marty Indian School, Mobridge and Flandreau Indian School. Bennett County Schools have used CC! for six years. About 66 percent of all South Dakota's school districts have CC!, including its two largest: Rapid City and Sioux Falls.

For more information on "We Are All Related" go to: http://4h.sdstate.edu/character/index.htm.

Motivational speaker Paul Vitale addressed nearly 1,700 middle school students about individual heroism in December 2005, as part of a three-day tour sponsored by CC! in Martin County.

"Paul shared an important message with our community," said CC! coordinator Terri May. "I wanted them to be inspired to the point that they really carry his message with them when they're faced with tough choices."

Charming CC! murals abound in Tulare County, and the Tulare County Office of Education has released a booklet that highlights them. Superintendent Jim Vidak calls the work "a celebration of the colorful reminders created by Tulare County teachers, students and parents," and the murals themselves are diverse. For instance, the Mooney Grove Park north mural shows a densely-leafed tree with snowy peaks in the distance, and the names of the Six Pillars on its strong root system. The Kaweah Delta Hospital mural depicts a female profile lifted toward a starlit night on the left, and a male face lifted toward a sunny sky on the right. All the murals are distinctive and appealing.

The editor of the booklet was John Forenti, CC! coordinator at the Office of Education from 1996 to 2005. Public information officer Robert Herman did the attractive design, and Davuid Thurber and Pamela Kunze took the photos.

Character education can change lives. It changed Jessica Headley's, and now she wants to help others experience the transformation. After attending a Character-Development Seminar (CDS) presented by CHARACTER COUNTS!, Headley was inspired to start a nonprofit organization to provide scholarships for other people to attend the training.

In Alabama, character education is currently an unfunded mandate. The result is P.R.A.I.S.E., Inc. (Promoting Responsibility, Awareness, Integrity, Service and Education), which focuses on underprivileged children and teens. Headley's goal is to raise enough funding to enable a minimum of 5 to 10 percent of primary and secondary school teachers in Alabama to attend CDS and help combat juvenile delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse and unwanted pregnancy, plus build positive social skills.

Headley has been recognized by Camp Fire USA as the outstanding mentor in the Birmingham area.

For more information about P.R.A.I.S.E., Inc., go to www.praiseinc.net.

Don Peslis of CHARACTER COUNTS! of Anderson writes:

"The 2004 holiday season has been especially TRRFCC! as students from many Madison County schools have really put their character-in-action....Here are a few of the Caring projects that the students themselves have shared:

"'During November we had our annual Salvation Army food drive and collected over 1200 items. For December we are filling up our Giving Tree with articles of clothing once more for the Salvation Army. Have a Merry Christmas from Forest Hills Elementary School. -- Greg Kalisz, Principal'

"'Merry Christmas from North Anderson Elementary School where we celebrated our Caring with a Christmas Tree that was made of more than 1,600 cans of food, and weighed over 600 pounds. -- Mike Brandon, Principal'

"'Southview has been collecting canned goods for the past two months for the Salvation Army. We are also collecting for a family that has huge medical bills. -- Carolyn Mootry, Principal'

"'We've done the following activities at Anderson Elementary: Red Shirt Day: Responsibility; Hat Day: Responsibility; Give a Dollar to Support the Wagon Kids for Riley Children's Hospital, Caring; Red Ribbon Week Campaign: Respect; Just Say No to Drugs Community Parade & Rally: Respect; Salvation Army Canned Food Drive: Caring. Thanks, Jennette Harris, Principal'

"'The Valley Grove Elementary Student Council recently sponsored a food drive for the Salvation Army, and the staff and student body collected 2,664 food items. Valley Grove has also contributed $500 to the Make-A-Wish foundation, $315 to the Ronald McDonald House, $200 to the United Way, and $110 to Second Harvest Food Bank. Have a Merry Christmas. -- Jan Koenigar, Principal'

"'Merry Christmas from East Elementary School, South Madison Community
Schools. We adopted a family for Christmas, complete with presents. We raised over $800 for Riley Childrens Hospital. We also rang the Salvation Army Bell for Christmas programs, and collected over 2,725 items for our canned food drive! -- Michelle Connell, Student Service Specialist'

"'Merry Christmas from Edgewood Elementary School. We collected food for the Salvation Army, sold candy canes at lunch and used the proceeds too buy gifts for the nursing home residents. We collected money for UNICEF as well. -- Pat Cox, Principal'.

"'Merry Christmas from Greenbriar Learning Community! We put our Caring into action by painting a beautiful mural on our lab wall to not only signify, but to remember jour acts of Caring this Christmas season. Merry Christmas! -- Paulette Hicks'

"'Merry Christmas from Park Place Elementary, where we put our Caring into action by collecting food for the Salvation Army, and by sharing our Caring through a Hat/Mitten/Glove Christmas Tree.'

"Merry Christmas from Robinson Elementary School where we shared our Caring through donations of canned food to benefit Operation Love for the Christmas Holidays. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.'

"Well....you can see that Caring is in full swing here with our students in Madison County....TRRFCC!"

Now, CC! posters adorn the campus, and a committee meets each month to discuss creative and motivating ways to introduce the Six Pillars to the school community.

Each month, a schoolwide event takes place to promote the "Pillar of the Month." By December 2005, three had occurred:

• To celebrate Responsibility in October, the students and teachers participated in a “Homework Heatwave” contest, sponsored by the PTA. Each class kept track of the percent of students who turned in homework. At the end of the month, the class with the highest percentage won a pizza party, courtesy of the PTA.
• To celebrate Respect in November, all adults -- including teachers, office staff, cafeteria staff, custodians and support staff -- became marshals. The marshals issued warrants to students "caught" being respectful. Those who received a warrant were entered into a weekly drawing to win a prize.
• To celebrate Caring in December, students are making Christmas cards for a local convalescent hospital, and a group of Mission students will deliver them. The kindergarten classrooms are participating in a Scholastic Book program that promotes caring. For each class that reads 100 books overall, Scholastic will donate 100 books to an underprivileged class that needs them.

In a surprising sweep, three fifth-graders from the same class at Wright Elementary School took home statewide honors for their grade level in a Foundations for Life essay contest sponsored by CHARACTER COUNTS!.

Illya Davydov, 11, Kimberly Johnson, 11, and Summer Manley, 10, chose their topics from among several quotes, then wrote about what the sayings meant to them. The quote Kimberly chose (“Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened”) inspired her to pen a touching piece about her deceased grandfather and how she and her younger sister drew pictures on his door while he was in the hospital so he wouldn’t be lonely.

Nearly as happy as the students was their fifth-grade teacher, Barbara Morrison, who asked the trio to write their essays in class rather than at home. “I wanted it to be their words,” she told the Des Moines Register.