Rachel Joy Scott was the first person killed in the Columbine shooting of 1999. Though her life was cut short, her influence was not. The inspiration of her kind, loving personality extends to millions of teenagers and youth today, and with the forming of the Friends of Rachel Club at the high school, it will impact students here.

“Rachel Scott was the first student killed in the Columbine School Massacre in 1999,” club adviser and Algebra 2 teacher Deneen Christian said. “She had kept diaries in journals since she had been elementary school and she had written a lot about looking for the best in others and being kind to other people and helping people.”

After her passing, Rachel’s family decided to form Rachel’s Challenge to continue their daughter’s legacy and to promote the ideals that she so valued.

“Not only did she write a lot of inspiring things but people continue to come forward about things that she had done for them,” Christian said. “Like hold an umbrella in the rain for someone who was changing a flat tire who she didn’t even know. Things like that, and she was just an amazing person who was always kind to other people.”

The inspiration to form the Friends of Rachel Club came from Rachel’s Challenge itself.

“We had 2 sessions that was a follow-up to Rachel’s Challenge from 8th grade that were with the freshmen,” Christian said. “They talked about forming a “Friends of Rachel Club, which is what we’re doing.”

According to the Rachel’s Challenge website, “More than 19 million people have been touched by Rachel’s message, and they continue the legacy of making a difference in their communities. Each year at least 2 million more people are added to that number. These are just a couple of the results of Rachel’s Challenge. In one survey, 78 percent of students indicated they would definitely intervene in a bullying incident in their school after seeing Rachel’s Challenge.”

While nobody knows what the future has in store for the Friends of Rachel Club, her words can still have an impact.

“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,” Rachel Scott said. “People will never know how far a little kindness can go.”

The Friends Of Rachel Club meets at 4:20 p.m. on Thursdays in room D117.