Karen Hawley, the principal of Canton's Freedom Middle School, has been named the Principal of the Year by Rachel's Challenge, an organization that strives to improve the world by teaching children to be kind to each other and to everyone else.
Named after Rachel Scott, the first person killed in the Columbine High School shootings in 1999, the organization focuses on Scott's diary writings and overall desire to change the world through kindness and love. Rachel's Challenge focuses its efforts on stopping bullying in schools, which has caused several young people around the world to commit suicide in recent years.
Freedom Middle School has done its part in accepting Rachel's Challenge for the last five years. Hawley first learned of the project at the Georgia PTA convention during an emotional presentation that brought the audience to tears.
"I was trying to mouth to the Freedom PTA president, 'I want to do this,"' Hawley said. "And the PTA president was trying to say to me, 'Let's do this.'"
Since then, Hawley has paid her own way to travel to Rachel's Challenge conventions held every summer to meet new people and spread the ideas of Rachel Scott to a wider audience.
Closer to home, Freedom Middle School has created a branch of "Rachel's Club," a student group that puts Scott's messages into practice. The Freedom branch, called "For Hope," works on performing random acts of kindness for the less fortunate in the Cherokee County Area.
"For example, For Hope and the BETA Club just finished giving out free toiletries to people in need," Hawley said.
Random acts of kindness performed all over the world are read during Freedom's morning announcements, and Rachel's Challenge speakers come to the school every year to talk to the student body.
This year, Freedom played host to Craig Scott, Rachel's brother, who survived the Columbine attack and dealt with severe depression as a result of the trauma.
"Every year, you have a new group of kids who have never heard the message, so we always have a new audience," Hawley said.
Kindness can be as complex as donating non-perishable goods to Can-A-Thon, volunteering at a homeless shelter, or be as simple as holding a door open for someone or helping someone pick up books that they dropped.
"One message I want to get through to our kids is, 'Let's be kind and help other people,'” Hawley said. "We all go through difficult times but isn't it nice when someone helps you?"