Last week, LH 2011 grad Katie North, now a freshman at the University of Texas, decided she wanted to do something simple and sweet to brighten someone’s day. She created a bulletin board flier, like many students do who are looking to sell a bike or find a roommate.
In six locations around the Austin campus, she posted the “Take What You Need” sign (pictured). On the tear-away tags, instead of a phone number, she wrote words of encouragement: love, hope, faith, patience, courage, understanding, passion, healing, strength, beauty, freedom.
Someone saw it and posted it on Tumblr, and by the weekend more than 25,000 people had “hearted” it, which I’m told is similar to being “liked” on Facebook (showing my age here). Erin Chesal, Katie’s 9th grade AP Social Studies teacher saw the pic on Facebook and asked if she could borrow the idea.
“Katie told me once she really wants to be a person who helps people,” said Casey Boland, Katie’s LHHS AP Social Studies teacher. “I told her all that takes is action – it’s really simply a decision and an action. So she did.”