2009 Students for Good Character Tribute To The PA General Assembly
The National Character Education Foundation’s 2009 Tribute to Good Character once again took place June 2 in the Rotunda of the Pennsylvania State Capitol. It was an immensely inspiring tribute which honored 6 seniors from across PA. This year’s recipients of “Good Character Awards” are listed as follows: Shanna Hawkins and Jordan Hill from Steelton-Highspire High School in Dauphin County, Benjamin Lowry a home schooler from Clarion County, Brendan Marasco from Washington High School in Washington County, Nathan McHugh from Panther Valley High School in Carbon County and Justin Stuebgen of Ford City High School in Armstrong County. These students were nominated through an application that is posted on our website in the months preceding the event. All of these students were chosen because of the exemplary character displayed through school leadership, athletics, academic excellence, volunteerism in their schools and communities and their stature as role-models.
We also honored the school district of Steelton-Highspire for both the tremendous strides they have taken to turn negative student performance completely around and for engaging a community to help make these changes. Dr. Debra Wortham, Superintendent of Steelton-Highspire, along with two middle school students, Jordan Millberry and Malia Tate-DeFreitas, who have displayed exemplary behavior, graciously accepted an award recognizing the school district. Two elementary students from Steelton Highspire school district also noted with good character, Kathryn Reed and Amina Bruglija, led legislators, students and guests in the Capitol Rotunda in the Pledge of Allegiance. On-looking crowds of visitors to the capitol also stopped to join in.
Character, a wise person once said, is what we do when no one is looking. It is who we are. This was the essence of the remarks given by our distinguished guests, five State Representatives from both parties. Each of the five gave brief remarks about what good character means to our communities and our society and culture as a whole. Those represented were Representative James Robuck Jr.of District 188, Representative Dick Stevenson of District 8, Representative Jake Wheatley of District 19, Representative Paul Clymer of District 145 and Representative Sam Smith of District 66.
Tom McGough, a seasoned master of ceremonies and a speaker for the National Character Education Foundation did an outstanding job of highlighting each of the students that were this year’s recipients. Tom peppered his comments with meaningful anecdotes drawing on his days as a Major League pitcher and a producer/director of the nationally syndicated program SPORTSWEEK.
Our hats are off to this year’s students and their families that made the trip to the state capitol for the Tribute. One grandmother so aptly put it this way after the event: “the parents of these students should be giving parenting classes.” We could not agree more! Good character development has to be modeled at home, reinforced and encouraged in the classroom, and displayed, recognized and revered in our communities.
To all of you reading this, remember, as author Bill Hybels put it in his timeless little book Who You Are When No One’s Looking, “character cannot be developed through good resolutions and checklists. It usually requires a lot of hard work, a little pain and years of faithfulness before any of the virtues are consistently noticeable in us.” Congratulations Awardees of Good Character 2009, BE FATHFULL !
