Today marks the launch of the fourth annual 'Clifford BE BIG in Your Community' national contest, which is designed to inspire engagement in service and volunteerism. Beginning today, the contest invites kids of all ages, teachers, parents and community leaders to submit proposals that demonstrate how Clifford's BIG Ideas (Share, Help Others, Be Kind, Be Responsible, Play Fair, Be a Good Friend, Believe in Yourself, Have Respect, Work Together and Be Truthful) can make the world a better place.

This year, Scholastic Media, a division of Scholastic Inc., the global children's publishing, education and media company and HandsOn Network, the volunteer enterprise of Points of Light released a research report entitled, "It Starts With Character: Inspiring Kids and Teens to Volunteer" to coincide with the contest launch. The study found that kids and teens who have more exposure to character-building skills, like Clifford's BIG Ideas, are more likely to volunteer

in their communities, and with greater frequency. In addition, parents and teachers say that media (TV, film, books, magazines, games, apps and Internet) can play an important role in communicating the value of education.

Additional findings include:

• Parents (84 percent), teachers (78 percent), kids age 6-11 (73 percent), and teens age 12-17 (64 percent) say character-building skills are among the most important skills to develop along with academic skills in order to be successful in life.
• The more kids and teens are exposed to character-building skills, the greater their level of interest in volunteering. Additionally, kids and teens who are more exposed to character-building skills volunteer more frequently.
• Eighty-eight percent of parents and 93 percent of teachers believe that volunteering provides opportunities for children to build character.
• Ninety-four percent of parents and 98 percent of teachers agree that media can play an important role in teaching kids the value of character education; 63 percent of teachers believe that kids would benefit from more media exposure to lessons about character-building skills.

The survey reinforces the importance of programs like BE BIG which encourages kids to discover their power to make a difference in their communities at an early age. Submitted ideas vie for the chance to win up to $10,000 in community grants. For entry forms and additional information visit: http://www.scholastic.com/cliffordbebig/contest/.

The study results can be viewed online at mediaroom.scholastic.com/clifford and http://www.handsonnetwork.org/files/be_big_report_final.pdf.