Once upon a time....

This journey would not be en route without my family, my husband Joe of 37 years, who is there for me with unconditional support, to dress in costume, build props, help with events and bounce ideas off of. Our son Joey (VindictiveVinyl.com) first put the characters online/computer with his artistic talent and I feel that he brought them to life, with  his creativity, artistic talent, and unconditional support in this journey. Our younger son Josh, (Chicago Johnnys.com) has helped with illustrations in our Let's Be Book series, and other books, bring the characters to life on paper and in story, supports us at our outings, and has unconditionally shared his time and talent, too. Our daughter Jennifer created our Resource, Bulletin Boards, Posters and other books, formatting, designing and keeping the characters alive!  All of our kids are computer savvy, creative and there is no way that this would have evolved into what we are today with out their time, talent and support. It's a family affair, and we are blessed, we'll walk this journey, make dreams come true and hope that you'll appreciate the work that we do.

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I had always volunteered in our kids schools as a Room Mom, a Gym Mom, the Bulletin Board Lady, a Scout Leader and Lunch Room Helper. One of the schools I worked in had no art, gym or music, and, because the staff knew how much I loved art, they asked if I would teach art on Friday's.With little to no resources to teach the subject, I always had white paper. If you look closely at the characters, they resemble one another. Look at Behavior Bear, Friendship Frog, Healthy Hippo and Warm-Hearted Walrus, their faces are the same, I added details. The same holds true for Respectful Rabbit, Responsible Rabbit, Do'er Duck and Manners Monkey. When you turned the basic pattern to the back side, you could make two characters out of one!  Eventually, I worked in a behavior and learning challenged classroom of nine boys. This is where the characters began to from, to take place, to be named. I only spent one year in that classroom and moved to another school where I piloted the characters. I worked as a member of the Reading Team at an elementary school. And this is where I piloted the characters which is when  they earned a National Promising Practice Award. There were only two of these awards given in the state of Illinois, and we are proud to be one of them.

After earning a National Promising Practice Award for the Characters,  I wound up leaving the school to form a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization named Characters of Character. If you remember, the economy was a disaster, my husband worked in construction and so I went back to work, I began teaching preschool part time and still focused on the characters.  Naturally, I used the resources which were already developed, however they were not professionally printed. This didn't occur until 2016. I brought the characters to life at the school in the classrooms, and even painted the characters outdoors on the play ground, in the kitchen, in the washroom, and in the classes as visual reminders to be of good character.  Around 2014 my husband found a wonderful job and this has allowed me to step out of the classroom and do my thing with the characters. The following is what he wrote me:

"To make my wife's dreams come true. Good ideas come and go, but the ones that mold a child's life should surely grow and grow. And, this will make my wife's dreams come true, and Lord, I thank you." So, with his blessing, the journey became a dream come true.

My first published book is called, Will You Be My Friend, we really are no different on Amazon. Up until this time, I had printed our books, posters and materials here at home. In 2016 we self published all of our books which are available on  Amazon,  Barnes & Noble,  and BAM
Today, with over 30 books published, our characters are 'live' in costume, we continue this dream, and walk this journey together with the Characters of Character.
Making A Difference, One Child At A Time.

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News Paper Articles:

files.tosmag.com/mediakit/v/StoreFiles/Misc.Books/TOSPreschoolatHome.pdf
www.mysundaynews.com/2018/05/03/mind-your-manners/
www.nwherald.com/2012/10/03/get-in-character/afxrszq/
www.educationworld.com/a_curr/teacher_of_the_day/joni_downey.shtml
www.nwherald.com/2017/06/23/author-spotlight-joni-downey/af3hx0n/
www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/barrington/community/chi-ugc-article-lighting-the-way-joni-downey-2017-07-05-story.html