VWES program accentuates positives

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert Elementary School is taking a different spin on the Rachel’s Challenge anti-bullying program recently presented to area students: by honoring kids who help others.

VWES fourth-grade teacher Abbey Craft said that, while the Rachel’s Challenge program, named for Rachel Joy Scott, the first victim of the April 20, 1999, shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, does a great job of combatting bullying, she and guidance counselors Angie Murphy and Mark Collins wanted to do a program that would not talk about bullying at all, but provide an incentive for students to do good and help others.

“We know that bullying can be a huge issue, and we want to prevent that,” Craft said, adding, “We decided to take a different spin on it: not necessarily focus on bullying, because we don’t really want to highlight that.”

Organizers came up with a more positive way to promote good behavior from students, creating a green wristband that says “I AM A HERO” that they plan to distribute to students nominated for helping others.

“We’re trying to (honor) the kids who are going above and beyond to help others,” Craft said, adding that students recognized would also be the only ones given an opportunity to sign the school “Rachel’s Challenge” banner located in the school commons area.

Organizers of the VWES program noted that, after talking to students at a school where everyone signed the banner, they felt students having to earn the honor of signing the banner would provide more of an impact than allowing all students to sign it.

“Those students (where everyone signed it) didn’t think it was that much of a big deal,” Murphy said.

Craft said the Rachel’s Challenge program at VWES is initially limited to students in fourth and fifth grades.

“We’re starting with fourth and fifth and, hopefully, next year we can bring it to other grade levels,” Craft noted.

During Friday’s presentation, fourth- and fifth-grade students watched a short video about an apparently homeless man who uses change for a dollar to impact the lives of several people. The lesson of the video: people don’t need to spend a lot of money to have an impact on others.

Those whose lives where changed in the video included a single mother who needed a job (the man left the change in front of a store that that displayed a “help wanted” sign) and a young runaway who used the change to call home.

Following the video, students were asked questions about how the man’s actions impacted the lives of those to whom he distributed the change.

Craft also showed students the new wristband, as well as the form students and staff can use to nominate students for “I AM A HERO” recognition.

Murphy also spoke about the impact one person can have on others — the underlying premise of Rachel’s Challenge: that Rachel Joy Scott has impacted millions of people with the messages she wrote in a journal that was found by her father following her death.

“Remember, to the world you may be just one person, but to one person, you may be the world,” she told students on Friday.