Rachel’s Challenge
February 1, 2016
Rachel’s Challenge is a non-profit program that works to encourage students in school to be kind and helpful to one another. The Rachel’s challenge presentation showed Rachel Joy Scott standing up for people who were bullied or didn’t not have anybody to talk with. The video then showed told the story of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who brought guns to school and shot 13 innocent people – 12 students and one teacher. One of the twelve students was Rachel. She was the first person to be killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Before Harris and Klebold were arrested, they committed suicide.
The Rachel’s Challenge program has gone all over the world inspiring over 22,000 people to do great things. Rachel’s story has traveled as far away as Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Africa, China, Canada, and Bermuda. Hundreds of students have written letters to Rachel’s Challenge expressing how that day they were going to hurt themselves, but after they experienced Rachel’s story, they decided not to, and instead decided to make a change in the world. When they lived in Colorado, the Scott family kept a journal with over 500 letters from students who wrote to them. Even though Rachel passed away, she has saved millions of people.
“When I was a little girl, I grew up having a sister with special needs. My middle sister, she has down syndrome and I was bullied for having a sister with special needs and so it really affected me growing up,” said Mrs. McIntosh, a teacher at DCIS.
On the Rachel’s Challenge website, a man wrote, “I read this letter from a ten-year-old girl saying the exact detail of how she wanted to take her life. I’m amazed because at the end she says ‘Rachel, you saved my life.’”
“Rachel’s story was a huge thing for them that made the difference, that helped them turn the time. They went from hopeless to hopeful, that there life would mean something, but that they can make a difference in someone else’s life.That’s the magic of Rachel’s story,” said Dave Gamache on the Rachel’s Challenge website.