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economist suntribune character community saturday jan 26 2002 ityork region realizes positive force as character community by jeff mitchell staff writer its called a character community its all about bringing out the best in all of us with the passage of a resolution thursday york region has officially become a character community the first region in canada toaddpt the title endorsement of the resolution by yorks mayors and regional councillors was a watershed momentformarkharrumayorpon- cousehs who has been the politi- cal driving force behind the effort to establish a character communityhere thereis an excitement about it mr icousens rfsaid during thursdays council meeting in newmarket i see it as a tremendously posi tive force for good in the whole of york region yorks initiative is based on a growing movement in towns and cities throughout the united states a character community- is one- in which elected officials commu nity leaders and residents promote and recognize the importance of good character it is hoped me entire cpmmuni ty will embrace and promote the development of positive attributes such as honesty respect and integrity character promotion has been endorsed by the regions school boards theres an excitement about it i see it as a tremendously positive force for good in the whole of york region students are encouraged to pur sue positive attributes and recog nize them in others in an attempt to create a safe respectful and comfortable atmosphere within which to live and learn were- alfeady seeing the results avisglaze associate direc tor of education with the york region districfrschqol board said in a recent interview this is about respect itmeans teaching by example it means honouring confirming- and vali dating the characteristics we con sider to be important since last june a steering com mittee consisting of community leaders as well as representatives from the education police busi ness and media sectors including and promote attributes chosen by the community mr cousens hopes political involvement will eventually cease and the council will be comprised entirely of community members don cousens markham mayor driving force behind character ini- tiative york region newspaper group edi tor in chief brenda larson has been laying the groundwork for the creation of a character communityhere its preparatorywork has incliid ed a series of workshops during which character community rep resentatives from throughout the us delivered motivational talks business and community leaders gathered for more training sessions thursday andfriday of this week an officiallaunch for the initia tive is planned for feb 12 at york region headquarters 17250 yonge st newmarket a character council has been established to continue the effort thisis about respect it means teachingbyz example it means honouring confirming and validating the characteristics we consider to be important he said part of the councils effort will be to appeal to all facets and corners of the community promot- ing an inclusive program that is based on common values rather than a religious or ethnic basis we want to be able to reach out to all faiths and religions and peo ple that are hot affiliated with areli- gioh mr cousens said v the initiative receivedhigh- p raise from yorks politicians among them aurora mayor tim jones who has taken part in the efforts so far its so simple so basic and yet it has so many positive benefits to it he said we need you to help build our character community it has been almost a year since i was first introduced to the value of character education to our community along with some community leaders including york regional police chief bob middaugh and markham- regional councillor tony wong i was invited to join a public school board team on a miniconference to flint mich to learn about encouraging the development of character in com- munities we learned a lot fromthat april excursion we learned about the importance of having good charac ter of treating others with respect of establishing positive standards everyone can share about com municating the message of good character to others we learned that some character education programs simply would nt fly herein multifaith multicul tural york region we also learned we wanted to be part of a process that would see york region become canadas first community of character hey a little town out west somewhere beat us to the punch but were still ontarios first community of character york region adopted the reso lution thursday and im proud to be part of the team that will get the ball rolling here markham mayor don cousens will continue to chair the commit tee which consists of a variety of politicians community leaders business people educators citi zens and students our newspapers are conducting a survey to find out what character attributes are important to you we want to create a list of 10 attributes that we can all embrace so we can work on our character together from the list at the right were asking you to check off the 10 most important attributes to you tell ipf s3bb til s3 brenda larson us what you think best describes a person of good character then send your responses to us well review them and on feb 12 when we officially launch the cam paign well announce the 10 attrib utes you have chosen and please dont think of this as just a survey about a list of words its so much more than that youre helping to define how we should all treat each other how we should dabusiness how we should educate our kids its not lip service its the real deal this is about building a strong respectful society in york region and you can be an integral part of that if youd like to know more about the initiative and about how char acter education can benefit you at home in your school or in your community please contact me by email at blarsonerabannercom and ill try to help if your club organization or business would like to host a char acter workshop members of our committee are available to talk about this initiative and its impor tance to the community we believe we should all be spreading the word as much as possible we hope you will help brenda larson is editor in chief of york region newspaper group and a member of the character community committee help us define regiorjs character one of the tools york region will use as part of itscharacter initiative is a list of positive character attributes we can all agree with please mark the 10 attributes that best define a person of character to you send your responses to character attributes survey 9 heritage rd markham on l3p1m3 attn brenda larson yoit cari faxtheni to 905-881- or- visit -bur- website at yorkregioncom and look for the characr ter survey the character community commit tee will use your responses to determine the character attributes to be used in our programfsp your participation is impor tant nhorhbl v u responsibility citizenship honesty fairness empathy initiative courage integrity perseverance creativity compassion enthusiasm dependability loyalty justice honour sincerity wisdom resourcefulness name town phone i would be interested in helping with this initiative pveserisittcf jottv zritffot 1 cataracts vitamins c and e and proper sunglasses that block 95 of uva uvb can help most people with cataracts initially just need a hew prescription for glasses contrary to popular belief the majority of people do not require cataract surgery because in the long run they will not cause significant vision loss 2 glaucoma walking briskly for 20 minutes 4 times a week can often help lower your eye pressure significantly vigilant monitoring of your eye pressures field of vision and thorough eye examinations can prevent blindness from the damages caused by glaucoma- 3 m degeneration protection from uv rays with sunglasses and daily supplements of vitamjnc betacarotene vitamin e and zinc oxide with copper is recommended for most people dr hh walji hon bscmsod nosy optometrist 47ieyes 3937 6633 highway 7 markham website wwwdrwaljicom email drwaljiaolcpm