The History of Character First! Initiative -
Character Council of Gilchrist County, Florida
March through September 2001
Character First! Initiative meetings begin by introducing community to the concepts of the initiative. Carl and Geneva Cornwell - coordinators.
Bi-weekly meetings were held with from 1 to 12 people in attendance.
Each attendee received a special packet, free of charge, containing pertinent information, also a color printed, pocket, and laminated folder with all 49 character qualities and the definitions.
September 2001
Those interested in organizing a Character Council began meeting on a regular monthly basis. The initial, organizational individuals were: Wendell Bishop, Bill Brideson, Carl & Geneva Cornwell, Lois Fletcher, Janet Langford, Jim Surrency, David Turner and Mark Feather as the representative attorney.
A donation of $2,000 was given to the Gilchrist County Education Foundation from the Progress Energy Corporation to purchase the Character First! Curriculum for the two elementary schools.
October 2001
First article appeared in the Gilchrist County Journal, introducing the community to the Character First! Initiative. A Character First! “Scrapbook” of events was begun.
January 2002
The Character First Curriculum was initiated in both Bell and Trenton Elementary Schools.
June 2002
City Council adopts a resolution to lead Trenton into becoming a “City of Character.” Local schools began recognizing students showing character by awarding them as “Citizens of the Month.”
August 2002
First “Character Chronicle” newsletter printed and sent to those interested.
November 2002
Charter Board of Directors and Officers were selected for the Character Council. Procedures were taken to adopt a Constitution and By-Laws for the Character Council and copies were signed, notarized and distributed to each charter director. A copy of the Constitution and By-Laws was sent to the State Department, Tallahassee, Florida, to obtain permission allowing the Character Council of Gilchrist County to be established as a not-for-profit organization. With the initial donation from the Sheriff’s Office of $1,500, an account was opened at Tri-County Bank.
Character Council establishes its regular monthly meeting, with the exception of May, August and December, as the 4th Thursday of the month. Date to be changed at the discretion of the Board.
City of Trenton Mayor Pete Randolph joined the team as an interested participant with the Character Council Board members.
December 2002
The Gilchrist County School Board signs a Resolution to commit to doing all in its power to become known as a “School Board of Character.”
Character Council begins participation in the annual “City of Bell Christmas Parade,” with 21 award-winning students participating.
January 2002
County Commissioners Mitchell Gentry and Tommy Langford joined the team as interested participants with the Character Council Board members.
March 2003
Character Council initiates its project of selecting a “Personality of the Month” and having an article and a photo of the honoree printed in the Gilchrist County Journal.
August 2003
The Gilchrist County Board of Commissioners signs a Resolution to commit to doing all in its power to ensure that Gilchrist County becomes known as a “County of Character.”
September 2003
Character Council begins participation with a booth at the “Down Home Days Festival.”
October 2003
Character Council begins participation with a booth at the “Gilchrist County Health and Benefits Fair.”
December 2003
Best Drugs contributes $1,000 to the Character Council treasury. Tri-County Bank contributes $100 to the Character Council treasury. Character Council participates in the “City of Bell Christmas Parade.”
March 2004
Character Council begins participation with a booth at the “Crime Prevention Rally.”
April 2004
Character Council initiates a “Character Celebration” to recognize everyone who has been a participant in its program, especially the 4 school guidance counselors, the 14 personalities of the month and the 4 financial contributors.
Character Council sponsors its first “Character Celebration,” awarding certificates to over 40 participants who had been involved with the Character First! Initiative from its inception in Gilchrist County.
Mr. & Mrs. Jonathan Kincaid and Mr. & Mrs. Jim Troke each donate $100 to the Character Council fund to purchase the “Achieving True Success” books. The Gilchrist County Commission votes to make a one-time donation of $1,500 for the fund to purchase the “Success” books.
Character Council participates in the annual “Association for Happy Families” Easter Egg Hunt Rally with a booth to distribute literature.
August 2004
City of Trenton donates $500 for the fund to purchase the “Success” books. Character Council holds its bi-annual “Community Character Forum.”
October 2004
Character Council election of officers for 2005
November 2004
Character Council sponsors and participates in the annual Gilchrist County Chamber of Commerce “Down Home Days Festival” with a booth (A number of businesses and individuals financially contribute to the efforts of the Character Council for its booth at the Festival)
December 2004
After two years of fund-raising the Character Council finally receives its 400-plus “Achieving True Success” book order from the Character Council of Florida.
Character Council participates in the annual City of Bell Christmas Parade with a float holding elementary grade students who have won the “Citizen of the Month” award for exemplifying character.
January 2005
The first “Kick-off Breakfast” was held at the Trenton Community Center. There were 21 attendees. Keith Jackson, a speaker for the Character Council of Florida, gave the presentation. Ten “Achieving True Success” books were distributed to the Gilchrist Board of Commissioners.
January 2005 begins the third year for the chartering of the “Character Council of Gilchrist County.”
February 2005
Adopted a change in meeting Day and Time to the 4th Tuesday of the Month, with the exception of May, August and December, when there is no meeting. Added two new Council functions and one new Council member: 1) a Fund-Raising Committee, 2) a Council Historian and 3) Diane Rondolet was elected as Historian.
March 2005
This month began the second year of interviews for “Personalities of the Month” as well as monthly articles written about them and the character quality.
April 2005
“Celebrating Character” program; held at Trenton Community Center. All former “personalities of the month” will be invited and those of the present year will be given a certificate. This year school students will no longer be participating with the adult program since they will have their own, which will include the parents attendance.
Carl and Geneva attended a “book fair,” representing the “Character First! Initiative. Curriculum and the “ATS” books were sold.
August 2005
Geneva Cornwell went before the County and City of Trenton Commission, as well as the School Board. She gave a presentation of ongoing activities and future planned enterprises of the Council. County Commission agreed to contribute $1,000 and the City agreed to contribute $500.
Annual “Community Character Forum” presented at the Sheriff’s Office Training Room. Those invited were past “personalities” and financial contributors.
September 2005
New members welcomed to the Council: Mary Dunn, Jessie & Mary Ann Lee, Diane Rondolet and Glen Thigpen. With the resignation of Dr. Jim Surrency and Sheriff David Turner coming up in November, everyone was asked to seek wisdom in choosing new leaders. New Committees were formed, entitled “Advisory” and “Merit.” Individual citizens, who believe in the Initiative, donated a $25 check each to the Council. They were Mrs. Sherree Lancaster, Ms. Iris Roberts and Mr. Jim Scruggs. Mrs. Carol McQueen contributed $50.
October 2005
The following members accepted positions.:
Mary Dunn, President;
Glen Thigpen, Vice-President;
Maureen Gentry, Public Relations Chair;
Jessie Lee, Community Outreach Committee Chair;
Mary Ann Lee, “Merit” Committee Chair;
Pete Randolph, “Advisory” Committee Chair;
Diane Rondolet, Council Historian.
Geneva Cornwell, Janet Langford and Major Stroupe agreed to stay on as Secretary, Treasurer and Curriculum Committee chair, respectively.
The name of the “Fund Raising” Committee was changed to “Ways and Means” committee and continued to chaired by Carl Cornwell.
November 2005
The Character Council members agreed to participate in the “Down Home Days” Festival with a booth headed by Carl and Geneva Cornwell, with the assistance of Diane Rondolet. The Festival is sponsored by the Gilchrist County Chamber of Commerce. Due to family responsibilities the day of the parade the Cornwells could not make a commitment to organize a float for the Council, and no one else agreed to coordinate it, so it was decided to “take a break” in having the Council have a decorated float in the 2005 Bell Christmas Parade. Due to open heart surgery performed on Mary Dunn‘s husband, the Council decided to wait until the 2006 “Kick-off” Breakfast to have its installation of officers. Plans were made to have the second annual “Kick-off” Breakfast the 4th Tuesday of January, the 24th, 7:30 AM at the Trenton Community Center. All interested citizens in the area would be sent an invitation, as well as the 34 personalities of the month.
December 2005
As of this month there have been 34 citizens interviewed for the “Personality of the Month” article for the Gilchrist County Journal.
January 2006
Article was sent to the Gilchrist County Journal for publication about the history of the Character Council mentioning the commemoration of the Fifth Anniversary of the introduction of the Character First! Initiative to Gilchrist County.
The Character Council held its second annual new year “Kick-off Breakfast” held at the Trenton Community Center. The 2006 officers were installed with Mr. Glen Thigpen as President, Mrs. Mary Dunn, as Vice-President, Dr. Geneva Cornwell as Secretary, Mr. Major Stroupe as Treasurer, and Committee Chairs: Trenton Mayor Pete Randolph, Advisory; Mr. Jesse Lee, Community Outreach; Mrs. Janet Langford, Curriculum; Ms. Diane Rondolet, Historian; Mrs. Mary Ann Lee, Merit; Mrs. Maureen Gentry, Public Relations; Mr. Carl Cornwell, Ways & Means.
February 2006
A permanent monthly Board meeting day was established.
Separate contributions from both from Mrs. Jean da Costa and the Gilchrist County Commission were received. The membership passed a motion to spend an extra $200 on a character “body puppet” to be worn by any one member volunteer at county events. The membership passed a motion to establish a “Speaker’s Bureau” for public awareness and distribute to each member an outline of the Council’s history and certain noted highlights. The membership voted to assist Mr. Jessie Lee, Community Outreach Chair, in getting the word out to church pastors about Character First! with the showing of its DVD/videos and distribution of information packets. Plans were formulated for the annual “Character Celebration,” to be held in April, in lieu of the regular meeting, with invitations to go out to all past and present personalities and well as elected officials. “Character First!” lapel pins were distributed to the membership at this February’s meeting. An announcement was made that at the beginning of each month at the student assembly of Trenton High School the Guidance Counselor gives a short talk on the character trait of the month and has the trait announced over the intercom every day during school.
April 2006
The annual “Celebrating Character” program was hosted by the Council. There were 38 people in attendance. A light supper was served and a door prize of an “Achieving True Success” was given away. Ten of the attendees were past personalities of the month and framed certificates were awarded to those personalities for ’05-’06.
July 2006
Discussion by Council members continues concerning the finding of a low-cost, simple, effective way to promote good character among the citizenry, the government, faith and business sector of the community. The Council decided to look into the possibility of using static window clings and bumper stickers. A committee will choose the slogans.
Council funds were appropriated for the purchase of materials for a Council mascot; chosen name, “Cari K. Tree.” Work on the mascot will begin in September.
August 2006
The annual “Character Community Forum” was held a the Trenton Community Center. There were 42 people in attendance, ten of which were candidates for public office. A new Character First! DVD was shown, which was produced at the Character First! home office in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It stimulated lot of questions and discussion.
September 2006
Due to pressing family obligations, Glen Thigpen resigned from the office of president, and Mary Dunn officially took over at the meeting for this month. It left the position of vice-president vacant, which was gladly received by Mitchell Gentry.
A new committee was formed and approved by the membership, which is for “Events.”
Funds were humbly and gladly received by the Council for use by its treasury from State’s Attorney, Bill Cervone and the City of Trenton Commission.
October 2006
Progress is being made on the Council’s mascot and its planned debut will be at the Veterans’ Day Parade in November. Funds were appropriated for the purchase of a minimum of 1,000 bumper stickers and 250 static window clings. With the additional funds coming from contributors, some of those funds were set aside for the purchase of more “Achieving True Success” books.
A new committee was added to the Council, that of “Web Site,” headed by Stacey Brown.
A proposal was made that the Council sponsor a circus, as a fund raiser. It was decided that there was not enough planning time. The idea was tabled until next summer.
November 2006
The Council was involved in the Veteran’s Day Parade with Geneva Cornwell being the first “Cari. K. Tree.” The day after the parade the Council sponsored a booth at the annual “Down Home Days” Festival to promote moral character. Carl Cornwell was the second “Cari K. Tree” talking to many people and handing out character cards.
December 2006
The Council takes a rest from meetings in this month, but ideas continue to light up the minds of those involved, with the knowledge that brain storming takes place even over the telephone.
The Council was invited to sponsor an ALERT Team of 30-32 young men of character who would like to come to Gilchrist County the end of February to serve the needy of our community in different ways. A decision is on the table and will be finalized at the “Kick-off Breakfast” in January. |
