The Beta Club at Clearwood Junior High won The Superintendent's Award for Outstanding Character and Citizenship this year, and a Honey Island Elementary class known for its acts of kindness was named Finalist for the honor. The winners were announced at the May 17 School Board meeting in Covington.

The Superintendent's Award was created to honor people and programs for showing outstanding character and citizenship at their individual schools. \

Superintendent W. L. “Trey” Folse, III commended both groups during his presentation. The Beta Club at Clearwood Jr. High had performed many good deeds and acts of kindness over the past year, he said, reading a list of community service projects in which they had participated.

Among the projects included fund-raising for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, collecting food and clothes for those less fortunate, and helping serve meals at community service agencies. Members created care packages and collected cell phones for troops stationed overseas, held a blood drive for a fellow student with cancer, and created and delivered holiday greeting cards for local nursing homes and retirement communities.

"This is just a part of the long list of great work they have done throughout the year," Superintendent Folse stated.

Several members of The Beta Club were present, along with Club Sponsors Christina Quigg and Kim Lott. The Club's motto is "Let Us Lead by Serving Others," Superintendent Folse told the audience of parents, staff, and School Board members.

A check for $1000 was awarded to the group, donated by Capital One Bank. The funds will be used for future projects by the Beta Club.

Named Finalist for this year’s Superintendent’s Award for Outstanding Character and Citizenship was a second grade class at Honey Island Elementary. When a student who had hurt her back while playing returned to Honey Island Elementary, her fellow classmates came to the rescue and helped her in a wide variety of ways during her recovery. Present to receive the award were several students representing the group, along with Principal Mary Jane Smith and Second Grade Teacher Rebecca Pittman. Hailey Dangerfield, the recipient of the acts of kindness, was also introduced to the Board.

“These students started out by helping just one person, one of their classmates, but they ended up changing the environment of their whole school,” said Superintendent Folse as he announced the selection. “They took turns carrying her books, opened doors, escorted through the hallways, even gave up their recess and P. E. time to keep her company when she wasn’t able to go outside.” As part of the school’s “Fish Philosophy,” a special bulletin board was created for Haley to post “thank you notes” to her fellow students.

Superintendent Folse said the experience taught the children the importance of caring, giving and sharing. He also asked the parents of the students being recognized to stand and be congratulated for teaching their children the character traits and citizenship skills that led to them winning the awards. “We certainly realize that these students learn their good character and citizenship skills at home from their parents and others who are role models as well as those who serve in our schools,” he stated.

The Superintendent’s Award for Outstanding Character and Citizenship was established in 2003 to give the School System an opportunity to spotlight the many outstanding acts of character and/or citizenship by individuals and groups. The program aims to encourage and recognize the value of teaching and modeling good character and citizenship among the educators, staff, students, and groups within the System. Winners are chosen based on criteria such as respect, responsibility, caring, trustworthiness, fairness, citizenship, and decision-making.