The popular I-70 series is a summer square-off between the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals, two Missouri baseball teams separated only by a stretch of the Interstate 70 highway. The Chris Draft Family Foundation has started its own version of the I-70 series, bringing student leaders from St. Louis and Kansas City together during a day of character in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas through “A Discussion and a Movie: The Blind Side.”

On Friday, February 19 at 9:15 a.m. at the AMC Mainstreet 6 in Kansas City (1400 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64105) and on Saturday, February 20, at 9:15 a.m. at the AMC Esquire 7 (6706 Clayton Road, St Louis, MO 63117), student-leaders, and parents of St. Louis student-leaders, will be invited to a private showing of “The Blind Side,” which is nominated for Best Picture at the 2010 Academy Awards. Following the movie, Draft will lead a discussion of the film, highlighting the theme of key character traits throughout the movie. After the event, each student will be asked to participate in an essay contest, with the winners getting the opportunity to have dinner with Draft. The students will be asked to write a one-page essay and submit it to their school administrators. The students, known as “Draft’s Picks,” were selected because of their leadership, academic, extracurricular activities and community service.

“The Blind Side” is based on a true story which depicts the story of Michael Oher, a teenager who is surviving on his own, virtually homeless, when he is spotted on the street by Leigh Anne Tuohy.  Learning that the young man is one of her daughter’s classmates, Leigh Anne insists that Michael—wearing shorts and a t-shirt in the dead of winter—come out of the cold. Without a moment’s hesitation, she invites him to stay at the Tuohy home for the night. What starts out as a gesture of kindness turns into something more as Michael becomes part of the Tuohy family, despite the differences in their backgrounds.

The Chris Draft Family Foundation’s “A Discussion and a Movie” is an effort to promote the development of the following Character Team™ traits as pillars that build positive and productive men and women: compassion, courage, honest, perseverance, respect, responsible and self-discipline. Through the attainment of these positive character traits, the foundation’s goal of encouraging the achievement of academic success, leadership and positive change in communities across the country will be accomplished, continuing the work the Chris Draft Family Foundation started with the character-based event.

About the Character Team™

The Chris Draft Family Foundation launched the Character Team™ in August 2007 as an effort to help good young men and women across the country extend the character-building lessons learned from participation in team sports and extracurricular activities as they apply to everyday life. The focal point of the Character Team™ is to provide unchanging, unwavering, and indestructible standards as a means of measurement focusing on the key character traits of: compassion, courage, honest, perseverance, respect, responsible, and self-discipline.