Bailey keeps Emily's spirit alive

Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, September 28, 2007

BAILEY - The phrase "random acts of violence" was officially eliminated from the vocabulary of Bailey residents on Thursday.

About 4,000 of them, including families and Platte Canyon High School students, made sure of that.

They replaced the phrase with "random acts of kindness," and they backed that theme with good deeds, knowing that Emily Keyes would have done the same were she alive today.

On the one-year anniversary of her death - when a gunman stormed a classroom and eventually shot the 16-year-old - Platte Canyon High was closed. But students didn't take the day off. Scores congregated on a large field at Farmer's Union Education Center holding pink balloons. It became the nerve center for the town's "random acts of kindness."

The students shared a moment of silence in memory of Keyes, then headed out.

Some helped make scarves for abused children in Denver. Others painted birdhouses that will be auctioned to raise money for the school. Others made Christmas ornaments to give to the elderly. A few took care of pets at the Inter-Mountain Humane Society. Inside the Farmer's Union center, the Bonfils Blood Center set up gurneys for donors.

"Every year we plan to do something like this," said Platte Canyon High sophomore Samantha Powers.

It wasn't just Platte Canyon High students who were filled with Emily's spirit. Fitzsimmons Middle School students Dawn Hartford, 15, Jade Meise, 13, and Madison Norton, 13, joined in making scarves for a Denver shelter for abused and neglected children.

Later in the day, sophomore Alex Petitpas helped build a bonfire in the middle of the field and set up tables for the hundreds who came for a barbecue and candlelight vigil.

"I'm just going to go around and help people," Petitpas said.

At the end of the day, a sea of people engaged in group hugs, tossed footballs and kicked soccer balls. They enjoyed hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad and chips donated by local merchants. They wrote their thoughts for Keyes on a wall of remembrance. Then they held a candlelight vigil.

Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener, who helped put an end to the gunman's terror a year ago, started his day cooking hot dogs for the students.

He ended it by echoing what will remain permanently in the lexicon of the Bailey vocabulary: "Emily's spirit lives through the random acts of kindness."