‘Do The Right Thing’

By Staff | May 17, 2013

Chloe Brown

The Cape Coral Police Department held its May Do The Right ceremony Wednes-day in City Council Chamber at City Hall. Ten students were recognized.

Chloe Brown

Chloe decided earlier this year that she wanted to do something locally to help her community, and because her father is a firefighter, she understands the importance and sometimes the dangers involved in public safety and military roles. When she heard that there was a K9, Oz, at the CCPD which didn’t yet have a vest, that’s where she set her focus. Instead of getting birthday gifts for her 7th birthday, she asked that her friends and family donate monetarily to this project. She did well, but hadn’t quite reached her goal so Chloe then sold lemonade to make up the difference, and was able to raise enough money to present Oz with a vest. Her mom tells me that the idea was all hers and that this has been a great life lesson for Chloe. She is already trying to think of a project for next year.

Wilkins family:

Alexis, Joseph,

Alexis Wilkins

Nicholas and Tiffany

The entire Wilkins family, Alexis, Joseph, Nicholas and Tiffany, have been visiting the Children’s Hospital and the PPEC Extended Care Unit for the past 11 years during Easter and Christmas. They donate their time and resources to brighten the day of the children in the hospital by bringing them gifts and treats and spreading cheer throughout the hospital. They can often be seen dressed as elves at Christmas or escorting the Easter Bunny in the spring, which, by the way, was Alexis this year. The Wilkins children have never sought recognition for this but only want to brighten the days of those less fortunate. They tell me the first few times of visiting the hospital were emotional for the siblings seeing other children who were ill, but they do this faithfully and are truly thankful for their own blessings and appreciative of their good health. Because of their years of visiting, they have come to know some of the children at the Extended Care Unit and look forward with each trip to spending some time with them.

: Chloe Brown

: Alexis Wilkins

: Joseph Wilkins

: Nicholas Wilkins

: Tiffany Wilkins

Joseph Wilkins

Nicholas Wilkins

Tiffany Wilkins

‘Do The Right Thing’

By Staff | May 17, 2013

Abanoub Shalaby

The Cape Coral Police Department held its May Do The Right ceremony Wednes-day in City Council Chamber at City Hall. Ten students were recognized.

Abanoub Shalaby

Shortly before Spring Break, a former student of Caloosa Middle posted on Facebook that he was having a party and there would be drugs available. The student posted this as an “invitation” for any of his Facebook friends to attend including the students at Caloosa Middle School. Abanoub was concerned how this may affect his friends and other young people, and brought it to the attention of a trusted adult at the school. He allowed the adult to pull up his Facebook account and print out the information which was then shared with the School Resource Officer to investigate and possibly prevent a very negative party from happening.

Austin Kish

Austin Kish has been a student aide for this entire school year. He has worked in-dividually with students to improve their academic and behavioral achievement and has also worked with Spanish and Haitian monolinguals and low achieving English speaking students as well. He was able to keep them focused, on task and improving their grades from failing to passing. Austin’s patience, commitment and attitude are excellent. He follows instructions and has a unique way of getting the students to be attentive, and successful. Austin’s teacher says he has helped her immensely in the classroom and been an excellent role model for students who are struggling.

Austin Kish

Cierra Durrance-Lytle

Cierra has created a ministry called Hope for the Homeless. A couple times a week, on the way to church, she would see a homeless man sleeping under a tree. Cierra said that she really wanted to do something to help the man and remembered that a while back a radio station did a backpack drive. That was the foundation for starting her ministry, Hope for the Homeless. For a month or so, she collected donations of toiletries such as toothpaste, shampoo and soap from her church life group and also asked friends via Facebook for donations.At the end of her collection, she had two large Rubbermaid totes full of toiletries. Another friend contributed about 20 backpacks. Cierra sorted the supplies and filled the backpacks with a variety of items. The first backpack was given recently to the man she saw for so many weeks sleeping under the tree. Now, Cierra and her family carry backpacks with them in the car, and stop whenever she sees the opportunity.

Joseph Sanchez

Joseph was nominated for handling a difficult situation with integrity and courage. He was leaving the locker room one day and heard a group of students screaming and cheering as they emptied a vending machine which had somehow been left unlocked. Joseph immediately confronted the kids and asked them to please put the merchandise back and leave the area. As the students laughed at him and called him names, Joseph courageously stood in front of the vending machine and used his body to guard the machine from further vandalism. When the students finally left, Joseph ran for assistance and asked a teacher to notify the office that kids were stealing from the school.

A teacher of Joseph’s states, “He did not have to stand there and protect the machine from vandalism nor did he have to try to talk those kids out of continuing to steal. He demonstrated his true character, doing something that came naturally, something that was not expected of him.” His teacher goes on to state, “I tell my students every day that your character is who you are when no one is watching.” Joseph is an honest, respectful and well mannered young man. He has displayed leadership skills on many occasions and has mediated and defused many situations before they escalated into a fight.

Cierra Durrance-Lytle

Tisha Saylor

On May 8, Tisha was at work serving tables at Carabbas when a woman began choking. When Tisha arrived at the scene, others had the woman on the floor doing CPR. Tisha has just recently passed her state certification for nursing assistant through the program at Ida Baker, so she immediately realized that the action being taken was incorrect. Tisha took charge of the situation and told the other restaurant guests to stop doing CPR as the woman was not unconscious and was trying to cough. Tisha helped to perform the correct procedures until paramedics came and took over.