Editor's note: The following letter is from 10 students from Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah High School who tell a story they can dine on for years to come.

We are writing this letter as 10 freshman boys from the Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah School District. We wanted to share an experience we had recently while celebrating during our Homecoming week.

On the night of the Homecoming dance, 10 of us went to dinner at an area restaurant, The Lake Street Cafe. As the SCCA regional races were in the area, the restaurant was very full. We were sure some tables initially were not thrilled when 10 teenagers walked into the room, as they were planning to have a nice, quiet dinner at a very nice restaurant. We realized this, and tried hard to act accordingly. We even had tables around us involve us in conversations.

We had a great dinner, but the best part came when the bill arrived — or should we say, didn't arrive.

At the end of the meal, we were told by our waitress that the dinner for all 10 of us was paid for by another customer in the restaurant. We thought, Wow! This stuff only happens in movies! When we asked why, the waitress told us the person was so impressed at how responsible, respectful and well-mannered we were, they wanted to recognize this behavior.

When we told our superintendent about this incident, she contacted the owner at Lake Street to get her version of the story, and it matched. The family who purchased our dinner was just so impressed to see a group of students acting in a mature manner, talking politely, not using profanity, that they thought we deserved a nice surprise.

Boy! Were they right about the nice surprise!

For years, we have had our parents, teachers and principals talk to us about making the right choices, as what we do reflects so much of who we are. And while we knew they were right, we didn't always take this advice to heart. But when total strangers acknowledged our actions when we made the right choices, it was almost like an "epiphany" to us.

People really do notice what we do, what we say, how we act. We are representatives when we go out in the community — we represent our family, our community, our school, and teenagers as a whole.

We would like to take this opportunity to share this story for two reasons. One, to thank the family for their generous treat, and two, to let members of the community know that what you say to us, think of us, etc. does make an impact. Even if we hadn't gotten a free meal, to hear these positive comments made us feel good and this was a feeling we'd like to have happen again.

The point we would like to stress, while much of a kid's education happens in school, it doesn't end there. We found out there are "teachers" all around us who can help teach us, shape our behavior, etc. It's been said it takes a whole community to raise a child; we guess our story illustrates this point well. Again, thank you SCCA visitor for your kind and generous act! It really was noted and appreciated!

Ten Very Grateful Students — Luke Klover, Ollie Sadiq, AJ Klemme, Alex Suemnicht, Tyler Jones, Devin Pfeifer, Cody Wilterdink, Austin Schmidt, Derek Weiss, and David Campbell