Rebecca Schofield started her kindness campaign more than a year ago, but it’s impact is still behind felt in the Maritimes and across Canada.
Becca, an 18-year-old who lives in Riverview, N.B., has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, with doctors giving her only months to live.
She turned her terminal prognosis into a call for "mass of acts of kindness," asking her Facebook followers to help her cross an item off her bucket list by doing good deeds and sharing them on social media under the hashtag #BeccaToldMeTo.
Over a year later, people young and old are still performing acts of kindness in Becca’s name.
"She's a girl that has a big heart,” says Grade 7 student Ghazal Motamedi. “She wants the best for the world, and I tell myself, why can't I do the same thing?"
Students École Samuel-de-Champlain in Saint John were inspired by Becca’s request and began to pay it forward – from volunteering at the SPCA to raising money to buy a prosthetic leg or wigs for people fighting cancer.
"A lot of people in Saint John have been diagnosed with cancer and a lot of people don't have the money to afford a cancer product," says Grade 7 student Sophia Maria Brousseau.
As part of a class project, students will present what they decided to do and how they felt after. They'll also be writing a letter to Becca's family.
It's a project their teacher says is inspiring them to give back every day.
"There are some students who are going to graduate and will never touch science in their life, and inside just that little spark that wants to help other people, that will follow them their entire life,” says teacher Chantal Daigle.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Mary Cranston.
