A group of Friendswood Independent School District educators traveled to Washington, D.C. the last weekend in October to attend the Character Education Partnership's 16th annual National Character Forum and to accept the 2009 National School of Character (NSOC) on behalf of Westwood family. 
      Cast as the characters from the Wizard of Oz, Lynn Hobratschk, Lee Whitlock, Sherry Green, Laura Rachita, Barbara Gruener, and Trish Hanks started their big day in full costume to share the story about their journey down Character Road to conference attendees. 

      CAREacter Crew member and parent Jeff Oakley was on hand serving not only as the technologist but also to share his parent's perspective of the story with the audience. 
      The NSOC awards luncheon kicked off with the presentation of the inaugural Patriot of Character award to Colin Powell whose brief thank-you speech brought the 800-member audience to its feet. 
      After a keynote about the book, Thrift and Generosity, by John Templeton, Jr., Westwood took its turn as one of 10 schools nationally to walk across the stage and receive this year's NSOC award as an exemplar in character education. 
      Following the luncheon and a few more workshops, Principal Lynn Hobratschk treated her cast of characters to a twilight tour of the nation's capitol, a breathtaking place to be this time of year with the fall foliage at its peak. 
      The NSOC award, which consists of a $3000.00 character-education outreach grant from the Templeton Foundation, an NSOC flag, and a beautifully-engraved NSOC plaque, was presented to the Westwood family in a ceremony on November 2, 2009 at 1:30 p.m. in the gymnasium.   Emcees for this event were third graders Samantha Spofford and Kenneth Soto.  Dignitaries joined Westwood officials at 1 p.m. in the Westwood cafeteria for refreshments provided by Houston Independent School District in Westwood’s honor.