St. Norbert speaker shares Columbine victim story
By Karie Angell Luc Contributor February 7, 2012 3:22PM
Rachel's Challenge speaker Adam Northam at Northbrook's St. Norbert Church Jan. 31 during Catholic Schools Week. | Karie Angell Luc~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 11, 2012 8:17AM
Those attending the Rachel’s Challenge event at Northbrook’s St. Norbert Church Jan. 31 arrived in light coats — where speaker Adam Northam rolled up his sleeves for a gentle challenge.
Would an interfaith congregation of 50, he asked, sign a pledge in honor of Rachel Scott, 17, the first victim of the Columbine High School tragedy in April of 1999?
As part of Catholic Schools Week, the faithful or curious would first listen to Northam, who used a laptop multimedia presentation to share Scott’s story.
“It’s kind of a sacred space to talk about a sacred topic,” reflected the Rev. Robert P. Heinz.
The Rachel’s Challenge audiovisual screen stood in front of the church’s altar.
And while Northam spoke — adults to junior-high aged students witnessed news footage from the 1999 massacre.
Some teens huddled together in pews, not because they were cold on this springlike winter day but disturbed by the CNN clips.
“How many of you have lost a friend or a loved one?” asked Northam.
Most raised a hand.
“I was a friend of the family,” revealed Northam, who travels for Rachel’s Challenge to encourage the ripple effect of kindness — a positive chain reaction of hope.
“I was in the eighth grade when the tragedy took place and Rachel’s brother Craig (a Columbine student) invited me to join Rachel’s Challenge.”
“Craig saw 20 of his classmates killed or injured that day,” added Northam. “Craig and I talk at least once a week.”
While Columbine students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris shot and killed fellow classmates in their deadly rampage that day, Craig Scott “played dead” under a table, wedged between two friends who had already died.
To the audience, which in dim lighting became tearful, Northam said: “Rachel was an amazing girl.
“She would do what she could to get to know you. That’s the kind of personality Rachel had.”
Rachel Scott was killed by four bullets, one of them piercing a diary in her backpack.
Many interviewed in the presentation said Rachel often spoke of early death.
“All of her life, Rachel looked up to (Holocaust victim) Anne Frank,” said Rachel’s sister Bethanee, who is interviewed in a video clip. “Both of them had the premonition they would die young.”
And like Frank, Rachel Scott’s diary has come to symbolize the humanity that can survive an unimaginable tragedy.
The presentation included other testimonials and writings supporting the claim that Rachel Scott believed, or knew, she would die young.
A few hours before she died, Rachel drew a picture of tears raining on a flower, with the drops interpreted as representing the 13 Columbine victims, he said.
“Since the day that Rachel died, we have been able to share Rachel’s ‘chain reaction’ with the whole world,” said Northam.
“We notice way too many people giving up,” Northam said. “Don’t give up. It doesn’t matter how old you are, how much money you have, dream big — write down goals.”
And so, on the way out, two long white Rachel’s Challenge banners were set on banquet tables for audience members to sign, pledging what they want to accomplish.
Northfield’s Jane Dickinson, a junior at Northbrook’s Cove School, is 17 — the same age as Rachel Scott at her death.
“She made a difference in the lives of other people,” said Dickinson.
“It’s hard to believe it (Columbine) was that long ago,” said Northbrook’s Kathleen Parker.
The banners will be “hanging in the lobby of our school and we’ll use them as a reminder and measure of accountability to show kindness and compassion toward each other,” said St. Norbert School Principal Kimberly Rich.
Visit www.stnorbertschool.org/ and www.rachelschallenge.org.
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