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On April 16th, 2007 a student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) shot and killed 32 students, wounded 25, and then shot himself. It has been shown that bullies and mental illness filled gunman’s life. This tragic event unified the student body of Virginia Tech to comfort each other in a time of loss. Meanwhile, a high school graduate who was undecided about where to attend college, chose Virginia Tech because he wanted to be part of such a compassionate group of people.

That student, Shane McCarty, is now a Virginia Tech alumnus who advocates for Actively Caring for People (AC4P) and recently was a speaker at a seminar at the East Campus of Cuyahoga Career Center (Tri-C). Thirteen students from RHS were permitted to go, along with guidance counselor Linda Weigand. AC4P means to go out of ones’ way to help another individual and recognize these acts when done by others. Sophomore class president Joel Gerberich explained the main focus of the seminar.

“We learned to not look at the bad side of kids being mean, but to encourage kids to be nice. Actively caring means to go above and beyond what you would normally do [for others]. . . Something as little as holding a door open for someone can be considered actively caring,” Gerberich said.

AC4P is inscribed on a green rubber bracelet and a constant reminder to be helpful to those who wear it.

“[Students who attended the seminar] have green bracelets that you give to somebody you see that does something nice for someone, not just so they’ll be witnessed being nice, but genuinely doing something for someone else,” Gerberich said.

Superintendent Randy Boroff suggested that Revere students go to the convention. Weigand is glad that he did and believes a new regime of helpful, actively caring young people will fill the halls of Revere Local Schools. She explained an idea that the students who attended the seminar concocted.

“Our thirteen students that went had a lot of really good ideas where they would like to do some things at the middle school. We’re going to be having transition with eighth graders [going] into the high school so we can get the students to embrace the idea [AC4P] as well as our student clubs and groups here so we can make an impact [on students],” Weigand said.

Weigand hopes that AC4P affects the hearts of Revere students so they will do caring things even without observation.

“I believe that whenever you create situations of over a thousand students interacting with one another they might respond in ways that aren’t appropriate. So, certainly in a classroom [where] the teacher is in charge and students will act proper. In non-supervised areas, we’re trying to make it a standard that just because somebody’s eyes aren’t on you, you still need to do the right thing,” Weigand said.

Weigand stated that she as well as any other staff member would be more than happy to help a student in need, and one should have to leave school with a feeling of discomfort.

All students at Revere will soon know that actively caring for people will make a difference in their peers’ lives as well as their own. Those who attended the seminar have taken already begun to take action by going out of their where for the benefit of others. Hopefully, the trend of actively caring for people will become second-nature to people everywhere.