RSS Feed
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Rachel's Challenge to be presented at THS tonight Today, Thursday, Jan. 10, a program will be presented from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Thomasville High School gym introducing the program "Rachel's Challenge." Earlier in the day students at THS and TMS were introduced to the program during assemblies at the school. The program "Rachel's Challenge" is named for Rachel Scott, the first person killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Her brother, Craig, was in the library that day and lost two close friends and narrowly escaped death himself. He was the only student at Columbine who was in the library, the worst of the killing zone, and also lost a sibling. Rachel's acts of kindness and compassion coupled with the contents of her six diaries have become the foundation for the most life-changing school program in America. Powerful audio and video footage of Rachel's Challenge holds students spellbound during the one-hour school presentation that motivates them to positive change in the way they treat others. This is followed by a 45-minute training session involving both adult and student leaders. This is an interactive session that shows how to sustain the momentum created by the assembly. That evening the Rachel's Challenge speaker conducts a powerful session with parents and community leaders. A few weeks after the tragedy at Columbine Darrell Scott, Rachel's father, spoke to a Congress House Judiciary Committee regarding issues of school violence. His speech has become one of the most widely read on the Internet. Shortly afterwards he founded "Rachel's Challenge", a nonviolence school program. Since it's beginning and through 2005 more then 400,000 students have heard the Rachel's Challenge presentation. In 2006 more than 475,000 students experienced Rachel's Challenge and had the opportunity to accept the challenges, modeled after Rachel's life and writings. The universal message of kindness and compassion told by Rachel's story has been heard by students in several other countries. The number of requests to present Rachel's Challenge to students, parents, and educators continues to increase. This year the number of students to hear Rachel's story will be 1,000,000. Mr. Scott has spoken to more than 5 million people in live settings, and has reached millions more through being featured on popular media outlets like CNN, Fox News, The Today Show, GoodMorning America, Larry King Live, Oprah, Dateline, O'Reilly Factor, Hannity and Colmes, and numerous others. Mr. Scott has also authored three books including the best seller "Rachel's Tears." Darrell meets regularly with state level politicians and educators, and is also a keynote speaker at many large educational venues. President George W. Bush has written a personal letter recommending Rachel's Challenge. In 2005, Rachel's Challenge was awarded the Friends of Education award from the state of New York. The school program founded by Mr. Scott has prevented numerous suicides, drastically reduced bullying, and in three known instances prevented a planned school shooting. The program at Thomasville Middle and High Schools is sponsored by Lewis Pest Control, Brooks Chevrolet, Wal-Mart, First United Security Bank, Sweet Water State Bank, Pope's Real Estate and Family Medicine Pharmacy and American Mortgage.
Following the presentation Thursday evening refreshments will be served. For more information contact THS Counselor Sandra B. Williams at 636- 4451.
|
for larger version       |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
