The Oyster Bay-East Norwich School District has made character education an integral part of the program from kindergarten right through to high school graduation. This is evident when walking the halls of Roosevelt where there are street signs promoting positive character traits like loyalty, caring, respect, honesty, fairness and responsibility. At the James H. Vernon school, every third-grade class performs a play each month for the whole school highlighting a different positive character trait. At the Oyster Bay High School students participate in SADD (students against destructive decisions) and other human relations clubs as well as taking part in special events like Challenge Day.

The question that naturally gets asked in all aspects of education is "does it work?" "Is it getting through?" The answer with regard to character education seems to be a resounding "yes." This is apparent by the many impressive projects taken on by our students under their own initiative.

This spring, four members of the OBHS Junior class responded to the horrors they saw in Darfur on the news. Stevie Labadorf, Gaby Kaplan, Danielle Capozzoli, and Becky Kaplan could not turn away and decided to try and make a difference. They hatched an idea to hold a Battle of the Bands concert at the high school to raise money for the relief effort. The girls found out that students needed a staff advisor before they would be permitted to use the auditorium for an event such as this. They enlisted the assistance of their guidance counselor, Ms. Deanna Cali. Ms. Cali will attest that she served in a support role only.

Then Stevie, Gaby, Danielle and Becky coordinated everything necessary to make the show happen from booking the bands, advertising, securing a sound engineer, selling tickets, and even hosting the show.

Danielle Capozzoli designed and manufactured a beautiful T-shirt to commemorate the event and as a means to bring in more funds. The girls gave up their free periods to sell the shirts in the cafeteria. Due to the high quality of the shirt material and the esthetically pleasing design, sales of the shirts were brisk.

Any concert promoter will tell you that booking multiple bands in one show can be a logistical nightmare. For teenage girls to attempt to put nearly a dozen bands on the OBHS PAC stage in one show had many seasoned professionals shaking their heads and hoping for the best. To complicate matters, many of the bands were not Oyster Bay students. Bands came from Syosset, Plainview and Jericho as well as OBHS to participate. The event was well-attended and ran without a hitch. Everyone had a wonderful time and when the lights went down at the end of the night, the girls had raised over $4,000 for their cause.

As if they hadn't done enough, the four OBHS Juniors continue to sell the T-shirts to add to their total. Anyone interested in getting one of these shirts and helping promote the cause can contact Ms. Cali at the OBHS guidance department. For teenagers to envision such a project and see it through to a successful completion is tremendous. These remarkable young ladies should be applauded, encouraged, and emulated.

Other students took the initiative to form their own group that they call the "Undecided." The "Undecided" group, an off-shoot of SADD, is a peer leadership organization made up of socially conscientious students who want to make a positive impact on their school community. They mentor younger students and develop programs that quietly address social issues that challenge young people in their daily lives. Each day adolescents make important decisions that impact their own and their friends' lives, often profoundly. These decisions are influenced by myriad personal and social factors that can change quickly, often causing them to become "undecided."

It is this group's mission to help their friends explore and become better educated about these issues so that they can make the best decisions in their daily lives. They try to exemplify these values and help their peers through mentoring and leading by example. They also create annual forums or projects that address these issues from the adolescent's point of view and in their own language. This year's project focused on anti-bullying and preventing relational aggression in our schools. They were particularly interested in collaborating with Ms. Migdalia Rosario in Vernon because they want the sixth-graders to leave their school in a positive way and with a positive attitude for their next step, the high school.

Recently, OBHS seniors Nick Goldston, Ashley Bishop, Trevor Collins, and Shiva Dilmaghani took a field trip to Vernon along with junior Sherice Rochester and sophomores Sandra Kahler and Dana Farley to address the concern of bullying. More students would have participated, but their numbers were limited by the Advanced Placement testing black-out period for field trips. Two students attended with special permission from their teachers because of their high level of achievement. The visit was extremely rewarding for the high school students who participated and greatly appreciated by the Vernon students who look up to the "big kids" at the high school. The plan is to return in pairs to spend time reinforcing their message on the playground and in the cafeteria as their schedules permit.

OBHS social worker Matthew Brown remarked, "Isn't it great to witness such caring and socially conscious students giving back to their community? Isn't it refreshing to see seniors so dedicated and industrious right up to finals in their last semester in high school?"

A lot has been written and spoken about the Relay for Life benefit held for the American Cancer Society on May 18 here in Oyster Bay. For such a small town the results were astonishing. With over $150,000 collected, Oyster Bay broke the record for the most money raised for a first-time Relay by any town in the Northeastern sector which includes all of New York and New Jersey.

What makes this record even more remarkable is that the whole process was started by OBHS senior Ali Dando. As with many of us, Ali's family has been touched by cancer. Unlike most of us, Ali decided to do something about it on a grand scale. She had heard about Relay for Life events in other towns and took it upon herself to launch one in Oyster Bay. The Oyster Bay community got behind Ali in record breaking numbers.

The night of the event which lasted until 5 in the morning saw many examples of the character of Oyster Bay. OBHS alumni Jen Nastri and J. D. Shoemaker walked almost non-stop the entire night. Leading the way with boundless energy and determination walking through the night was OBEN's own Ron Ranaldo.

All of these people selflessly gave of themselves without asking for anything in return. They are fantastic role models for us all. It is wonderful to see where the journey can lead when it starts on Loyalty Lane in the Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School.