Each spring at Webster City Middle School, students and faculty set aside one day devoted to helping others. Character Counts Day gets students engaged and active in building the 6 Pillars of Character: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship.

Attaboy, a four-member indie-pop band, performed 3 shows throughout the day. The band spoke about staying above peer pressure, respecting others, and even started to dance-offs during their first concert at the WCMS Friday morning. Attaboy performed at the high school at 1 p.m. and also gave a free show at the high school Friday night.

In conjunction with last Friday’s Character Counts Day, middle school students from Webster City, Stratford, and Northeast Hamilton, packaged over 40,000 meals to give to area Iowa food banks.

Over 600 students measured, sorted, and boxed non-perishable meals in the middle school gymnasium.

“These food packages that we are making will be for food banks in the state of Iowa. We’ll be supporting local area food banks by going through this process,” said Zellmer.

To continue with the theme of giving, WCMS students read Boxes for Katie to Sunset and Pleasantview Elementary schoolers. The book describes the reciprocity of giving and how caring for others is important. This book is in connection with African Classroom Connection, an organization dedicated to building schools in African countries.

Middle school students also got the chance to help elementary students write letters to send to kids in Africa. Students wrote about what their school was like, what they enjoyed doing at school, and talked about what they liked doing outside of school.

This was the kick-off to get students involved and informed about giving on a global scale. Students will have the opportunity to donate leftover school supplies including notebooks, pencils, crayons, glue and more to send to children in Africa who don’t have the means to get them at the end of the school. Letters and pictures drawn by students will also be sent to Africa with school supplies that are leftover from students at the end of the school year.

Sunset Heights, Pleasantview and the middle school will all be collecting school supplies at the end of the school year for African kids in need.