Four Tamaqua Area School District fifth-grade students recently earned the Sen. David Argall Good Citizenship Award.

Two students from both the Tamaqua Elementary School and West Penn Elementary were selected by their teachers to receive the honor.

Gabriel Conville and Bailey Piska were picked from Tamaqua Elementary. Their homeroom teachers, Georgiann Setser and Gina Morgan combined to say, “They are both hard workers who are always willing to help a peer. They are involved in many activities within and outside of school.”

The recipients from West Penn Elementary were Addison Fink and Ella Strause.

“We always look for the students to be hard working, good students,” said Michele Bittner, fifth-grade teacher at West Penn. “It does not necessarily mean academically that they have to achieve good grades, just that they’re hard workers and always doing their best. When it comes to the good citizenship part, we get to know our kids well throughout the year. You quickly find those students who are willing to help other students. It’s just somebody who stands out doing the right things and putting their own self needs aside to help anybody that needs it.”

Bittner and fellow fifth-grade teacher Angela Faust safely hand-delivered the awards to their students last week.

“We called the parents and made sure it was OK first,” said Bittner. “Addison - her parents did not tell her, so it was a complete surprise. Ella’s mom told her, so she knew when we came - she was out in the driveway waiting for us. It was a lot of fun. It was a nice break from the monotony of just being interactive on the computer.”