Rashad Williams was fifteen, an age when most boys are thinking about girls, or sports, or just hanging out with other guys. Yet Rashad couldn’t stop thinking about Lance Kirklin, one of the students brutally wounded in that murderous high school shooting rampage near Denver. Lance had been shot several times, once in the face, and he had to learn to walk again.
Rashad had seen reports that Lance’s family had no medical insurance and that the boy’s medical bills could grow to a million dollars. What could one fifteen-year-old possibly do? Rashad didn’t have money, but he did have two strong legs. He decided to run in San Francisco’s annual seven-and-a-half mile Bay to Breakers race. He would ask people to pledge money for every mile completed. Maybe he could raise a few hundred dollars.
When a newspaper columnist printed the story, however, donations began pouring in. Not just a few hundred dollars, but thousands, eighteen thousand dollars in all.
We often wonder, What can one person do? Then someone comes along with an answer. Some adolescent does something to remind us that one good deed is like a single rock rolling down a mountain. As it gains momentum, it can become an avalanche, eventually enveloping an entire community in a blanket of goodwill. Charity is like a cold. It’s tough to be exposed to it without catching it.