In back, from left, are Golden Knights Jamie Lee Rattray, Jenna Boss, Vanessa Gagnon and Erica Howe, and principal Lawrence Jenne, with Lawrence Avenue Elementary School kids.

POTSDAM -- Clarkson University's National Champion Women's Hockey team attended an assembly at Potsdam's Lawrence Avenue Elementary School, which recognized students who practiced using good character every day during the month of March.

The Golden Knights brought their national championship trophies and gave high fives and congratulated students on their good character.

Lawrence Avenue Elementary is a "Bucket Filling" School, which means it emphasizes and practices using good character every day. This character education program is based on author Carol McCloud's book "Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids." This anti-bullying theory is that each of us has an invisible bucket which is constantly emptied or filled, depending on what others say or do. When our bucket is full, we feel great. When it is empty, we feel awful.

Each morning before the Pledge of Allegiance the students at the school recite the Bucket Filler's Pledge: "I promise to do my best every day, to be a bucket filler, not to dip, and to use my lid for myself and others at home, at school, and everywhere I go."

March's character theme was fairness. Golden Knight Jenna Boss spoke about the importance of being fair on a team, to yourself, to friends, to teachers, to parents, and to siblings. She stressed cheating is not the answer. It might get short term results, she said, but being fair will get you where you want to be in the future.

Knight Vanessa Gagnon spoke about the importance of academics and how the life lessons her professors taught her shaped her future as well as the importance of having good, fair friends. She noted her homework had to come before her passion for hockey because grades would get her a job.