Rachel's Challenge

I know, it's been forever.  And I have several things I need to post about, such as Elayna's 2nd birthday!!  And I'll get to it, I promise, but first I wanted to post about Rachel's Challenge.

I got the chance to go to a Rachel's Challenge presentation, not one done at a school, but one for adults.  I'll be honest, I was slightly hesitant, worried it'd be the typical anti-bullying message that's everywhere nowadays, but it wasn't.  Was the end message about not bullying?  Kinda.  It was about so much more than that.

If you don't know, Rachel Joy Scott was the first student killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999.  After her death, her parents heard stories from many of her classmates about how Rachel had helped them, been their friend when they were friendless, stood up for them when they were being picked on, and had been an all-around great person.

They also read through her diaries and an essay on her values and ideals.  In them, she talks about how she wanted to impact the world, and that she believes a little kindness can make a huge difference.  She talked about starting a chain reaction to change the world.  They also discovered an outline of her hand prints on the back of her dresser in which she had written "These hands belong to Rachel Joy Scott and will someday touch millions of people's hearts."

So her dad decided to make Rachel's dreams a reality.  He started the non-profit group Rachel's Challenge which goes out to schools and talks to kids about having empathy and kindness for one another.  It's all about realizing that we're all human and we all have our own stories.  Give people a chance, don't judge them after one encounter, or because they don't dress like you, or because they're new, or because of all the shallow reasons we do judge one another.

My description doesn't come close to doing it justice.  It was an amazing story (although hard watching the images of the Columbine shooting again) and if you ever get the chance to attend a presentation, either in a school or out, I highly recommend you do.