Rachel is remembered as having a great sense of humor, a heart of gold, throwing fun parties, loving to cook and loving to spend time with her pets and her boyfriend. But she had a serious side too. She was determined. If she set her mind to something, it got done. She overcame a learning disability and went on to get not only her Master's degree, but was only days away from earning her PhD.
She took her job seriously - and often would pay home visits to the children who she lovingly tried to help adjust to a world that frightened them. A mother of one of her pupils paid her this compliment:
"Although she was never a mom herself, she taught me more about being a mom to a child with special needs than anyone else."
Rachel seemingly spent most of her life in school - so it only made sense that we should honor her with an education-centered Act of Kindness. Since the new semester of college starts on Monday, our timing couldn't have been better.
Rachel seemingly spent most of her life in school - so it only made sense that we should honor her with an education-centered Act of Kindness. Since the new semester of college starts on Monday, our timing couldn't have been better.
Today's random act of kindness was in honor of Rachel D'Avino, who was 29 years old. Rachel was a true hero in many ways. She was a behavioral therapist who worked with children in the autism spectrum and had only been working at Sandy Hook for two days. On that terrible day she threw herself in front of the children, trying to shield them from the bullets.
Rachel's boyfriend was planning on proposing on Christmas Eve - instead she was buried with the ring he planned to give her and in her place at Christmas dinner sat a sock monkey and a photo.
My daughter and I (FYI - I keep inviting my son, but he keeps turning me down =( ) decided to head over to Portland Community College and buy a gift card for the college bookstore and give it to a random student milling about the store. We purchased our card and went in hunt of someone. There were a good number of students trying to pick up their textbooks before next week, so we had a lot to choose from. We decided to find someone who reminded us of Rachel, and we found one.
We walked up to an around 30-ish lady who was studying books on the shelves. I handed her the gift card and our Acts of Kindness card and wished her good luck with her education. She was delighted and told us that she's going back to school to get her nursing degree, and then she proceeded to show us photos of her two young daughters. She and my daughter had a nice little conversation, and then she told me she had been thinking of doing something similar to this with her daughters.
I have no doubt that we picked the right person to give that card to; she was outgoing, had a way with children and was going to school in order to help others... just like Rachel D'Avino.
“Your greatness is measured by your kindness; your education and intellect by your modesty; your ignorance is betrayed by your suspicions and prejudices, and your real caliber is measured by the consideration and tolerance you have for others.” -William J H Boetcker
No comments:
Post a Comment