all right let's get this started and thanks for coming everyone if you're here for the school board meeting you're in the wrong place this is the character counts awards night and it is my pleasure to be hosting tonight we have five awards and just a note to the award recipients when you come up don't run away too fast we do want to have a picture with you in the person that nominated you so stick around also you will have the option of speaking if you want to use a couple words or if either of you want to say you know thank you or whatever or if you don't want to speak at all that's one so just know that i will offer you the mike and you can step up and say a few words if you'd like but no pressure if you don't a couple words about peter sound of character counts character counts was established in one thousand nine hundred nine as a grassroots community based initiative dedicated to promote good character throughout our community many community members and organizations participate in and contribute to and towards this end including peters township school district of which by the way i'm christian less an assistant principal at the high school township departments including parks and rec and public safety chamber of commerce rotary ministerial and other groups and individuals all are welcome at character counts appears out of school district and community has been recognized by the character education partnership as a national district of character in two thousand and ten as a result of the positive efforts of many community members and organizations peters township character council meets the first tuesday of most months and meetings are open to the public we welcome the involvement of any community member who is interested in promoting good character throughout the or sound chip information about this is available on either the township website or the district of site now for the awards night this awards program is a great way to say thank you to a lot of people that have given a lot of effort in the community and we want to recognize peers colleagues neighbors and students for making a commitment to ideals of respect honesty and responsibility so with that said let's begin our first first award recipient was nominated by sandy mcwilliams birgitta is the award recipient this is written by mrs mcwilliams so if there are personal statements please environment in which all of our children and staff feel nourished not only with food but also with kindness she goes out of her way to be helpful to everyone when we are in need of a good listener we can always depend on mrs du to not only listen but to offer support with a hug mrs duda is respectful to all students as you make sure that each of them has a good lunch she oversees all of the responsibilities of the capital area and never complains she is there bright  early every morning and is one of the last ones to leave the cafeteria after all the supplies have been cleaned up and put away mrs due to loves to watch the students shine in all of their plays and makes a good point of congratulating everyone on their accomplishments she decorates the cafeteria for every holiday and remind students of appropriate manners when going through the lunch line she also prepares special treats for students and staff members using her own supplies and time we love her homemade food all of pleasant valley take comfort in knowing that own not only will their day be filled with good food but also they get comforting from our grand friend this is today so mrs do want to come up with mrs mcwilliams like you know i just think like going through my own children and having them and there he sat next to down and then for the kids you know and she makes things on her own and like we said she's a grand friend she said great friend and true motto everyone always knows is thank goodness it's friday but the people by the valley know thank goodness it's thursday because thursday is the day that you start preparing a chocolate chip cookies in the staff always get a little taste prior to what the students we're blue ribbon school we have all all cruel people with big gold marks and i'm just so grateful to be just a little part of that family thank you thank you thank you mrs duda as a pleasant valley graduate myself i do thank you i'm sure you served me many a cookie all right our next award recipient was nominated by robert wilson and the award recipient quote we are not defined by one particular moment in our lives but by many this is rachel's paper quote this rachel's husband nominated her and he states so again  is a personal statement in case i'm sure they're wonderful all right rachel wilson has devoted her life to helping others and live and others and their lives by the above month with a quote that i just read at the young age of thirteen she was already volunteering within a women's shelter to assist women and children who were battered to obtain protection from abuse orders and to transition back into a community with safety plans and the holistic needs being met she listened comforted and supported these individuals oftentimes setting them on the path of transitioning from one victim from victim to a survivor to thriving and healing rachel frequently engages in community and charitable organizations whether that is being actively involved in marathons and walks to benefit a variety of organizations donating her time to make dinners for individuals who are sick or incapacitated writing grant submissions donating full course meals for charity developing marketing tools for women who are in the process of opening their own businesses or teaching a variety of women throughout the county how to incorporate their physical health needs and their mental health needs through exercise and results oriented training i know no other person who exemplifies such a strong commitment not only to our community but to the character traits that this award recognizes congratulations to rachel wilson if you want to come  and i just wanted to thank everybody it's been amazing for us to be part of this community and i've just enjoyed my time here as a clinical therapist and i've enjoyed actually working with a lot of kids from schools so thank you thank you i do also want to take this time to apologize for my scruffy ness i have actually taken a lot of grief about my inability to grow a consistent beard across my face as you know i'm an assistant principal at the high school and you can imagine the onslaught of comments that i received as the kids are coming in the building each morning so for those of you that are watching in t v land forgive me was nominated by roger impact all and lindsay dolan church is the award recipient twelve year old peters township student successfully completes another fundraising project this was the headline written about lindsay it didn't show up in the paper and she had a pretty good picture in the world the article continues to read lindsay over the years has done ornament making for st jude's hospital a jewelry party with a friend a neighbor briana dear for girls orphanage in kenya africa this year lindsay made money to donate by going to friends and families houses to help them with anything they need around the busy holiday season activities including gift wrapping decorating holiday card labels baking cooking and party preparations when to raise a total of eight hundred fifty six dollars to donate with his money she went out and bought supplies and toys for the families and children instead of just donating a check and she got cancer has stuffed animals for games cleaning supplies and much more for the house and she and her family deliver these goods to the ron mcdonald house charity pittsburgh in december so with that said if lindsay would come up and roger and pat if you're here as well come on up yes she's told me not to say anything but i can't pass up the opportunity to thank the twelve year old girl for spending all of her time promoting and helping other kids that don't really know article in the paper said the lindsay effect and when you stop to think about it she delivered all these toys to all these boys and girls who are under privileged and needed some additional help they didn't know lindsey at all all they knew was the lindsay effect i thought it was a great title for a girl who's going to give from her heart and soul what all of us here who came to support you know lindsay we love you and thank you time carrying compassionate person always thinking of other people she's as beautiful inside as she is that we  so i'll give those to you afterwards my apologies all right on to the next the wart this award was nominated by sending the williams forgive me for any and the pleasant valley elementary staff the award winners are dante renzo and mary pat are in so every school has parents that are involved in their child's education but not many schools have the durans zero dynamic duo like we have a pleasant valley elementary dante and mary pat the renzo are dynamic parent volunteers because they are always willing to help any time a student or staff member needs them mr renzo volunteers weekly to clean and maintain our fish tank and communicate with our local store to keep our tank stocked cleaning the aquarium is a monumental task with over four hundred kids touching it and observing it day with mr duran so complacent with a smile on his face he has also volunteered with other activities such as donuts during these various activities and the students love them mary pat is just as equally involved with volunteer ing at p v and her calming kind presence puts everyone around her eighty's she is our p t a president assist with activities such as american cancer relay for life he i don't classroom activities p t a events meetings winter carnival staff luncheons assemblies and is usually seen at our school at least once daily offering a friendly smile and helpful hand when needed mary pat is also first to offer to prepare a homemade meal when a staff member or family is in need this year is the renzo was first to offer assistance to a staff member with her class during the pediatric performance replacing the teacher who could not attend she also assisted the teacher in communicating with parents completing paperwork locating costumes and assisting the staff members in charge of the program every school should be as lucky as pleasant valley to have such dynamic volunteers as that the rents us so thank you of the durans as we come on up give them around where barack i was fortunate enough you know how you say that people will say to you that they're fortunate that they pat you teach their child well i was fortunate enough to have two of the directions of children in my classroom but only because they didn't move in early enough three and when i first met them i just knew that they were wonderful kind giving caring people and when i approached mary pat about taking my place for p of read down below and mary pat is always the first to say i can help in any way in any way and we talk about that fishtank it's a monumental task you can just imagine all the fingerprints and everything all over there so we are we're just very fortunate to have this doing because you wouldn't want to know what they're doing you wouldn't know how they feel about things it is so kind and nice and they're raising three lovely children and i distilled into that what good role models they are for their children to show what it's like to to help i want to say really quickly we are so happy and thrilled to be part of this wonderful community we are really truly plas thank you very very much seven years not only has she volunteered under designated days but she's the kind of volunteer who will drop in whenever she has an extra minute and that even includes some days beyond the school year she is responsible kind to students and staff and is always willing to take on special projects up around from labeling a our books to relocating entire shelves of materials mary lou is always ready to roll up her sleeves to get the job done no matter what it's not uncommon for mary lou to even bring her lunch in a bag so that she can eat on the go as she heads out the door to volunteer in a ph classroom to her preschool commitments or to her actual job of styling hair the bower hill library media center recognizes mary lou paul sacco and her outstanding character and she continues to find time for us by assisting parents during the book fairs open house nights serving students and staff with a smile from behind the library check out desk to to shelving and reshelve and hundreds of books on to our library shelves all while raising four wonderful children of our own thank you mary lou my r poem that i wrote about mary lou mary lou mary lou how do you do all that you do with a smile and such efficiency through and through with piles of books in your arms or down in you need you are the busiest of the power he'll be i think you're volunteer spirit is quite divine you are a one woman assembly line there's never a job too big or too small you are always willing to help with them all you've been our library our library guardian angel year after year the most could also say her oldest is an eighth grade and i really had my figures wrong it's really been nine years because she started with her when she was in kindergarten so in four kids through and the youngest is first grade where we have her for i hope a few more years say we want to make you aware and anyone that's watching this aware of some of some of vents that are coming up that character counts is involved in and that are open to everyone so we highly recommend them first this saturday april twenty first from noon to four p m at the high school stadium we're doing our walk for autism our interact love is sponsoring that and if if you want to come out support it's going to be great event we're trying to promote autism awareness see our website at the high school for details another event coming up the following saturday is the air force jazz band concert that will also be held at the high school not at the stadium but in the auditorium this is to support patriotism and to promote our troops and supporting them so please come out that is open to the public and it's going to be a wonderful event we've had them before and they've put on a phenomenal show so please we recommend you bring your family so that that will be just an excellent entertaining time dr radio can you tell me what time that starts so i didn't write that down seven p m that's right seven the high school and it is free so is the walk for autism donations are welcome tuesday may first of our hill elementary will be the next character counts meeting like i said at the beginning character counts we meet monthly and we share ideas about how to how to promote a character how to stop bullying promote patriotism and support initiatives of just awareness for all of these topics that can be wrapped up and summed up with the word character so our next meeting will be about our elementary we do meet at noon and so please feel free to join us that is open to anyone anyone in the community that wants to come now this does close our evening and i do thank you thank you everyone let's get one more round of applause for participants we're going to have a group picture of all of the award recipients so right after this if you want to come up for that we do ask everybody if you want to join us for refreshments we have some delightful cookies and some lemonade and some coffee over there so please feel free to join us thank you everyone for coming out tonight have a great