The Character Counts! program seeks to find candidates with great character and commitment to their community and schools. Iowa State has been lucky enough to find two people worthy of this organization through their contributions at Iowa State.

Brandon Kennedy, junior in mechanical engineering, and Warren Franke, associate professor of health and human performance, were recently recognized for their community involvement with Citizen of Character awards from Character Counts!.

They received the awards because they exhibited the six Character Counts! pillars – trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship – in their everyday lives, said Peter Englin, director of department of residence and chairman of the recognition subcommittee of Character Counts! awards.

The winners had to be nominated, and the nominator had to prove how that person exhibited the six Character Counts! pillars in his or her everyday life.

Kennedy exhibited the pillars in several ways by being involved in the community. He served as a Government of Student Body senator where he was asked to be a student participant in the National Summit on Preventing Civil Disturbances held in Ames last year. Kennedy also participates in the group Breaking Down Barriers, whose mission is to make Ames a more welcoming place for diversity.

“We meet monthly and we discuss different issues within the community,” Kennedy said. “If there is an issue or disturbance related to race, gender, economic class or classified as diversity, we talk about those kind of things and how they can be improved.”

The group also promotes different programs, such as the Families in Ames Celebrating EthnicitieS celebration.

Kennedy has also made an impact on campus by helping secure $10,000 from GSB to reopen the Black Cultural Center and by being a peer mentor for the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Learning Community.

“I help out with our project and the coffee shop [Barista Caf‚ in Buchanan Hall]. We opened not too long ago, make sure everything is on task,” he said. “I help out with grading things and collecting homework too.”

By being a peer mentor manager, Kennedy also helps select peer mentors and pairs them with scholars for the Engineering Leadership Program.

Community service is not something new to Kennedy. In high school he was involved in many activities and completed more than 300 hours of community service.

“At first it was just to help out, and I was asked if I would like to participate,” he said. “After a while I found out I liked what I was doing, who I was volunteering with and after that I did it because it interested me, and I like helping other people.”

Kennedy said he had not directly participated with Character Counts! before but had heard of it and was honored to receive the award.

Warren Franke also won the Citizen of Character award for being involved in the Ames community. He is currently involved with the Cub Scouts by being a den leader for Pack 140, has coached nearly five years for the Ames soccer program and volunteers within his church, St. Thomas Aquinas.

“I’m a volunteer gardener for one of the flower beds at St. Thomas Aquinas,” Franke said. “I’m also a hospitality minister, so I greet people when they come to church service, hand out books and take up offering.”

For nine years, Franke has also been in charge of a flower bed on the corner of 24th Street and Duff as volunteer gardener for Ames Parks and Recreation.

“At first it was my family and neighbors doing it, but I’ve had different people help me for different years,” he said. “I like to garden and it’s nice to do something for the city.”

Franke’s community talks also helped to prompt Chuck Cychosz, Ames Police Chief-elect, to nominate him for the award.

“I give lots of community talks,” Franke said. “Usually it’s to show how to use exercise as a way to stay healthy, kind of exercise as a preventative measure.”

He also helped formed fitness programs for ISU and Ames Police to keep the officers healthy. Through the programs, officers undergo tests every six months, and Franke volunteers to supervise the tests. Franke also had not participated with Character Counts! before but was familiar with the program through his children who attend Meeker Elementary School.

“It’s really cool,” he said. “They [the pillars] overlap with other important values with Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and religious organization values.”

He was honored to receive the award and was amazed with how many young people received awards too.

“I’m just impressed with the actions that all the other winners received, especially the kids in elementary school, junior high and high school,” Franke said. “If all the kids got service oriented, then the world would be a better place; it’s remarkable.”

This was the first year for the awards, and Character Counts! plans to continue them next year, Englin said.

“We look to do it a little bit earlier in the future,” he said. “We had a number of outstanding individuals that deserve statewide consideration, so we’d like to get our community nominees not only recognized in Ames, but get them forwarded to statewide recognition.”

Character Counts! has been active in Ames schools for years, but during the past couple of years it has expanded to include the entire Ames community.

Englin said the awards portion of Character Counts! is important.

“Too often we don’t celebrate the positive things people do,” he said. “There is more public acknowledgment of problems and issues in society, and we wanted to celebrate all the good things people and organizations were doing in Ames.”