Food Donations Show Character Counts at Marblehead

Students at Marblehead Elementary School are doing Red Ribbon Week's anti-drug activities this week, as are thousands of other schoolchildren.

But Marblehead students aren't stopping with the anti-drug message; they are also collecting canned goods for the local Family Assistance Ministries, working in their community garden to promote sustainability and writing about how all those efforts come together to build responsibility and character.

Marblehead Principal Jackie Campbell said that after the Wednesday morning program, during which kids stacked dozens of cans for donations on a front table, that it's important to have a comprehensive approach to teaching good character.

"It's so important to actually see it," she said about the school's food donation and gardening efforts. "That helps the children internalize it."

Also at the morning ceremony, representatives from the San Clemente Garden Club gave each child seeds to start his or her own butterfly garden at home, and presented the school $900 to support its gardening efforts.