The Chase Youth Commission and KREM2 are partnering to create a chain reaction of kindness and compassion in our schools to help students feel safe and engaged in their education. Through the national Rachel’s Challenge organization, school staff, students, and businesses will work together to conduct student-led activities aimed at making our schools and community more welcoming environments for youth of all shapes, sizes, colors, and interests. Communities that have engaged in the Rachel’s Challenge initiative report decreases in fights and bullying and improved school participation.

Who is Rachel? Rachel Scott was the first student killed at the Columbine High School incident. After her death, her family was inundated with stories from other students about how Rachel’s simple acts of kindness had a profound effect on them. Rachel often reached out to other students when no one else would. Highly influenced by the diaries of Anne Frank, she left behind journal recording her philosophies about ethics and her adopted Codes of Life – honesty, compassion, and looking for the best and beauty in everyone. Students who knew Rachel vowed to honor her by living out her Codes of Life. Rachel’s dad and step-mom later founded the Rachel’s Challenge organization to further spread Rachel’s message across the U.S.

Throughout the year, KREM2 is committed to reporting on the acts of students actively working to spread acts of kindness as Rachel did. Schools that take on the Rachel’s Challege project will be prime targets for this coverage provided by KREM2 News Anchor Jane McCarthy. The Chase Youth Commission and its Teen Advisory Council members will serve as ambassadors for the message and program both in the schools and out in the community. Businesses are invited to participate through a community fund set up by KREM to help underwrite speaker and materials costs for schools wishing to participate but without adequate resources.

You can read more about Rachel’s Challenge at the KREM website:  www.krem.com or at Rachel’s Challenge: www.rachelschallenge.org .  For more information, you can also call the Spokane Regional Youth Department at 509-625-6440.