Photos by Katie Turpen.
Rachel's Challenge
Pizitz Middle School students enjoy a kickball fundraising tournament benefiting Relay for Life. The tournament was organized by the “Friends of Rachel” club, which aims to create a positive atmosphere throughout the school.
Pizitz Middle School is currently implementing Rachel’s Challenge, a program created after the death of Rachel Joy Scott, the first victim from the Columbine High School shooting in 1999.
The organization was created in order to make a difference and to affect positive change in students throughout the world by inspiring, equipping and empowering “every person to create a permanent positive culture change in their school, business and community by starting a chain reaction of kindness and compassion.”
After counselors at Pizitz Middle School attended an anti-bullying conference in Mobile, they decided Pizitz would be a perfect place to implement the program. Pizitz Middle School Principal David Miles and Vestavia Hills City Councilman John Henley arranged funding for the presentation of the program. They partnered with Liberty Park Middle School and Vestavia Hills High School to introduce Rachel’s Challenge. The five challenges found in Rachel Joy Scott’s journal presented in this program are the following: look for the best in others, dream big, choose positive influences, speak with kindness and start your own chain reaction.
Through these five challenges, students are forced to think differently by fostering a positive atmosphere and by helping address bullying issues that occur in schools to create a lasting impact on others’ lives. The teachers are seeing the student body embrace the challenge by being more open and reaching out to peers for whom they might not ordinarily reach, beginning the chain of kindness. The students, parents and faculty are not the only ones who have advocated for Rachel’s Challenge. This kindness seems to be spreading like a wildfire across the community.
Pizitz students and faculty wanted to take this idea further by creating FOR- the “Friends of Rachel” club. It is open to all students and meets twice a month during homeroom with a sponsoring teacher. The FOR club mission is to create permanent culture change in the school. Each grade level has implemented wonderful activities for the school’s student body. Some of these activities have included videos stating appreciation for their teachers (sixth grade), and videos demonstrating how to recognize a student who exemplifies the virtues expressed through Rachel’s Challenge (seventh grade).
The eighth grade FOR clubs have really stepped it up by collecting 1,661 cans of food for the Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church food pantry, organizing a toy drive and welcoming their peers as the students entered the school. They also sponsored a kickball fundraising tournament in March with the proceeds being donated to Relay for Life.
“The students have raised $1,400 so far for Relay For Life,” Pizitz teacher Kelly Gurosky said. “We have three eighth graders who are cancer survivors, so this is really special to them.”
Collins McMurray and Samantha Furgeson, two seventh-graders, initiated the idea of students nominating their peers who exemplify one of the five Rachel Challenges for the Rachel’s Challenge Award. These students were recognized during a citizenship assembly and given a certificate and a letter explaining how they “were caught” doing random acts of kindness.
-Submitted by Catherine Horton, Julie Kash, Pizitz Middle School
