Students at Wolf Meadow Elementary were given a challenge Monday: to change their school, one act of kindness at a time.
Wolf Meadow is one of five elementary schools in the district that is piloting the Rachel’s Challenge program this year.
The program was named after Rachel Scott, the first person killed in the 1999 Columbine High School shootings.
Before her death, Rachel wrote an essay for class called “My Ethics, My Codes of Life.”
In it, she wrote, “I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same.”
Her essay and diaries inspired Rachel’s Challenge, which seeks to inspire people to start a chain reaction of kindness.
Central Cabarrus High School students heard about the program last May from a Rachel’s Challenge staff member, and the school has continued it since then.
Cabarrus County Schools bought the elementary level materials and curriculum with money from the student services department’s budget that is used for bullying, behavior and positive education, said Donna Smith, executive director of student services for the system.
Each of the five elementary schools that are piloting the program decided how they would implement it and wrote about their plans in proposals to receive the curriculum and materials, Smith said.
Wolf Meadow introduced its students to Rachel’s Challenge during two assemblies on Monday where school counselors showed a video about Rachel that focused on her life, rather than her death, and was targeted for elementary school students, Smith said.
The video said that Rachel believed everyone should be treated with kindness, and she showed that when she stood up for a student being picked on at her school and helped a new student make friends. In the video, a narrator said that Rachel died when she was 17 years old, but it did not say how, and it mentioned her essay about starting a chain reaction of kindness.
It also showed how other schools and students across the country have taken on Rachel’s Challenge and have become kinder to each other.
Erika Friday, a school counselor at Wolf Meadow, then told students that they would be starting the program once the assemblies ended.
“Ask yourself, what would Rachel do?” Friday said. “Would Rachel show kindness? Would Rachel show compassion? Go out of your way to show compassion.”
Students at the school will now be able to let the staff know about acts of kindness they see or perform themselves, and each of those acts will be written on paper to create a chain in each classroom. Principal Adam Auerbach challenged the students to create a chain long enough to wrap around the entire school.
The guidance classes will also continue to discuss Rachel’s life and the program, Friday said, and students will be able to sign a banner that says they have accepted Rachel’s Challenge. Auerbach and the school’s mascot, Wolfgang, were the first to sign the banner during one of Monday’s assemblies.
Wolf Meadow will also start a Kindness and Compassion Club for its older students, where they will make cards for people in nursing homes and create “happygrams” for students, Friday said. The school library will have a section dedicated to books on kindness and compassion.
“It is my goal to eliminate bullying,” Friday said. “This is the first step.”
Fifth-graders John Evans and Lesly Soriano said they enjoyed the presentation and would accept the challenge.
“In my neighborhood, people are always mean to each other,” Soriano said. “I want to start a chain reaction there. I’ll start being nice to a person who is bullied.”
Evans said he would start in his neighborhood, as well.
“You have to believe you can do it,” Evans said.
Contact reporter Jessica Groover: 704-789-9152
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