The Kindness Club

A couple of weeks ago, Trent and Troy, who go to a charter school here in town, attended a special assembly called “Rachel’s Challenge.” This program was based on the life and story of Rachel Joy Scott who, you may recall, was the first victim killed during the Columbine High School shooting.

About a month before she was gunned down, Rachel wrote an essay for her fifth period class entitled, “My Ethics, My Codes of Life.” In it, she threw out the challenge to treat others with compassion, kindness, love, and mercy. 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. People will never know how far a little kindness can go.”

Rachel ended the essay, saying, “You just may start a chain reaction.”

Her paper, along with both Rachel’s own acts of compassion toward others and six personal diaries, formed the basis for this powerful assembly. What’s incredible to me is how this presentation has been seen by more than 5 million people around the world—all because one teenage had made the decision to be true to her Christian convictions.

Incidentally, in preparation for this assembly each classroom was asked to nominate two students to represent them in what was called “The Kindness Club.” Naturally, Jean and I were proud to hear that Troy was nominated by his first-grade classmates. Now, I should say that being picked to be a part of the Kindness Club doesn’t mean you become perfect like an angel overnight.

Case in point.

A few days after attending the assembly, a TV film crew came to our house for an interview and to capture a slice of life in the Daly household. Understandably, the boys were a little weirded out by all of the cameras. They decided to bundle up and go outside to play in the snow instead.

It might have taken Trent all of five minutes before he intentionally veered his sled into Troy. In turn, Troy temporarily suspended his membership in the Kindness Club long enough to retaliate by colliding into Trent with his sled!

Ah, life is a process, isn’t it?