WESTFIELD–“My daughter came home and said we have to see this,” Gwen Grabiec of Westfield said, wiping away tears.
Her daughter goes to middle school in Westfield and is 11 years old, and was presented Rachel’s Challenge by Westfield Police and the Rachel’s Challenge organization Monday.
This is what she wanted her mother to see.
That’s also what brought Grabiec to tears.
Rachel’s Challenge is brought to schoolchildren across the country, from middle school to high school, and tries to show them how to be kinder to one another and prevent bullying and alienation. It is presented around the country and had its third annual presentation yesterday in Westfield.
It came out of the death of 16-year-old Rachel Joy Scott, the first of 13 victims during the Columbine massacre, the largest high school shooting in US history.
Rachel’s Challenge attempts to make schools safer by providing five keys to “start a chain of action of kindness and compassion.” These keys are:
- Look for the best in others
- Dream big
- Choose positive influences
- Speak with kindness
- Start your own chain reaction
Rodney Burris poses with some students after the presentation.
These steps also hope to break the negative chains that children and adults face, like bullying.
“How do you break the chain,” Rodney Burris, presenter, motivational speaker and communications professor at Essex College in Baltimore, asked the crowd. “By inserting goodness, inserting kindness.”
Accompanied by music, pictures and videos Burris gave an emotional presentation to the approximately dozen in attendance, filled with tragic anecdotes from the day of the incident and uplifting memories and stories that help to fuel Rachel’s Challenge today.
The idea for Rachel’s Challenge was originally from an essay that Scott wrote two weeks before she died in the shooting, titled “My Ethics, My Codes of Life,” as well as six journals that she kept that were later found and Scott’s actions through high school. It was founded by Rachel’s father Darrell in order to help preserve her memory.
The cover of Rachel Scott’s journal, which was in her backpack when she was shot. A bullet also pierced the cover.
The mission statement of the organization is to “motivate, educate and bring positive change to many young people.”
The program will be continuing in the North and South Middle Schools for the next several days. For Burris–who is a father of five–this means that parents should also get into the act of being kind.
“Take the next couple of days to show the impact people have had on your lives,” Burris said. “Your kids are going to be part of that chain reaction.”
After all, as Rachel Scott said: “People will never know how far a little kindness will go.”
For more information, visit: http://rachelschallenge.org/
