A nonprofit group is honoring a number of individuals, schools, businesses and towns today (Tuesday) with the 2012 Iowa Character Awards. Among the recipients, is the Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company, which won the “Partner of the Year Award.” Amy Smit is with the Des Moines based Character Counts in Iowa organization. She says the highest honor, the Robert D. Ray Pillar of Character Award, is being presented to Drake University President David Maxwell. “President Maxwell has definitely been a huge advocate for us, both on campus and off campus,” Smit said. “I personally think he is just a great guy and he has really shown great character throughout his presidency.” Maxwell has been president at Drake since 1999.

The mission of Character Counts in Iowa, which is housed at Drake University, is to promote what the group identifies as the six “pillars” of character: caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness. Smit said Fort Dodge is this year’s Community of Character recipient. “They have great community initiatives from having local events to (displaying) the six pillars on their police cars,” Smit said. “They’ve taken some great ownership of the six pillars and wanting to promote that throughout their community.”

The Iowa Character Awards will be presented at a dinner scheduled for August 3 in West Des Moines. Learn more online at www.charactercountsiniowa.org.

(Radio Iowa)