By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

Jo Dare and her Friends of Rachel group at Felten Middle School in Hays had been looking forward to Craig Scott's presentation for a long time.

The program had been postponed several times this fall, for a variety of reasons.

It was worth the wait.

Scott -- younger brother of Rachel Scott, the first teenager who died in the 1999 killing spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. -- was at Felten all day Tuesday, then gave another presentation to the public that night.

Two schoolmates of Rachel's did the shooting, killing 13 people before taking their own lives. Afterward, Rachel's family started a nationwide school outreach program for the prevention of teen violence called Rachel's Challenge.

It includes a school training program "committed to the message of Rachel Scott to start a chain reaction of kindness and compassion."

Felten has started an in-school club called Friends of Rachel to help sustain the campaign's goals.

Dare, counselor at Felten, brought Rachel's father, Darrell Scott, to Hays a couple of years ago for several Rachel's Challenge talks.

And Felten has started its own group at school, called Friends of Rachel.

The second part of the program is called Rachel's Legacy.

Craig Scott gave a moving and inspirational talk to about 550 area school children in two different presentations Tuesday morning.

"Today is not about (Rachel's) legacy," Scott told the crowds. "It's about your legacy."

Dare deemed the day a huge success, even after the first assembly in the morning.

"I had teachers say it was hard to come back to their classrooms and not do something (in relation to the presentation)," Dare said. "It was lunchtime after the second presentation, and several of the kids came in crying. It definitely had an impact."

Those who came to that evening's presentation, and several were there for a second time in the same day, were doubly inspired.

At the end of Scott's talk, he brought from the crowd Rick Claiborn, a local man who gave an inspirational talk of his own.

Claiborn's oldest daughter, 16-year-old Jordyn, was one of two teenagers who died in a vehicle accident near Hays in September.

Scott talks about how he could only get on with his life after the tragedy by forgiving both the two shooters -- and himself.

Scott had gotten in an argument with his sister on their way to school the day of the shooting, and his last encounter with her wasn't one to remember.

It was something Scott couldn't let go for a long time.

Until he found a way to forgive himself.

"Forgiveness is like setting a prisoner free," Scott said, "then finding out that prisoner was you."

Claiborn, though, has a different take, although it's been just two months since the accident that took his oldest child's life.

"We don't feel like we have anything to forgive," Claiborn said of his family, which includes wife, Mary, and two younger children, Aly, 12, and Korbin, 5.

Claiborn said he never has blamed the driver of the vehicle, a classmate of Jordyn's.

"We understand God has a plan," he said. "I don't know why (the accident happened), and I don't like it. But I understand it."

It's a story that Scott said has just as much meaning as Rachel's, "even though (Rick Claiborn) didn't have the video, and the polished speech."

"I'm not here just to tell you about my sister's story," Scott said. "I want you to get you to think about your story. Each story has value."

One of those valuable stories is that of Jordyn Claiborn.

And her father's message to parents in the crowd was just as powerful as Scott's.

"Spend time with your kids," Rick Claiborn said, pointing out different ways he accomplished that even with a busy teenager.

"And my only thing," he concluded, "is get started."