Whereas Rachel Scott was born on August 5, 1981, and
passed away on April 20, 1999;
Whereas Rachel Scott was the first victim of the Columbine
tragedy who through acts of kindness and compassion sparked the inspiration for
Rachel’s Challenge, a nationwide school outreach program for the prevention of
teen violence that empowers people, recognizes and celebrates doing the right
thing, focuses on healthy, happy, well-balanced students, and builds healthy
communities;
Whereas Rachel Scott drew an outline of her hand on the
back of her dresser and wrote, “These hands belong to Rachel Joy Scott and will
someday touch millions of people’s hearts”;
Whereas Rachel Scott was beloved by her family, friends,
fellow students, teachers, and administrators for her generosity, good humor,
spirited charm, and the belief that kindness and compassion could be contagious
and life changing;
Whereas Rachel Scott wrote a challenge to the world
through an essay she titled, “My Ethics, My Codes of Life” just a month before
she was killed;
Whereas in this essay she challenged people by saying, “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. People will never know how far
a little kindness can go”;
Whereas Rachel Scott left an example of kindness and
compassion as one of the most inspirational students in the United States by
reaching out to students who were handicapped, new to school, or picked on or
put down by others, and her actions are now being replicated by millions of
people;
Whereas Rachel Scott was posthumously awarded the 2001
National Kindness Award as Student of the Year by the Acts of Kindness
Association;
Whereas Rachel Scott, through her humanitarian work,
leaves an incomparable legacy serving as an inspiration for kindness and
compassion and will never be forgotten;
Whereas Rachel Scott once said, “How do you know that
trust, compassion, and beauty will not make this world a better place”;
Whereas Rachel Scott through the work of her dad, Darrell
Scott, and Rachel’s Challenge, was awarded the National Education Association
of New York Friend of Education Award;
Whereas Rachel’s Challenge has directly impacted over
13,000,000 people since 1999, prevented hundreds of suicides, documented the
prevention of school shootings and incidence of violence, and inspired over
1,000 service clubs, involving hundreds of thousands of students, that have
been created in her memory in schools across the United States and are
impacting innumerable communities;
Whereas Rachel’s Challenge extends Rachel Scott’s
challenge of kindness and compassion to all students through national and
international multimedia campaigns and broadcasts;
Whereas Rachel’s Challenge will cosponsor on May 6, 2010,
the packaging of over 1,000,000 meals for Haiti in 1 day, and each year from
this point forward on the third Thursday of April the world record for
packaging meals will be broken again and again; and
Whereas the third Thursday of April would be an
appropriate date to designate as Rachel’s Challenge: A Day of Kindness
and Compassion
to bring awareness to kindness, compassion, and service
to world hunger: Now, therefore, be it
That the House of
Representatives—
(1)supports the designation of Rachel’s
Challenge: A Day of Kindness and Compassion
;
(2)honors the life
and accomplishments of Rachel Scott and her challenge to start a chain reaction
of kindness and compassion;
(3)recognizes
Rachel’s Challenge for delivering Rachel Scott’s legacy to the world; and
(4)remembers the
victims of the Columbine school tragedy, their families and friends, and all
the people impacted.