So Much To Change
Billy Hallowell, 19, is president and founder of Teen Web Online, a website he created at the age of 15 in response to the shootings at Columbine High School. Since then, he has organized several speaking events, is planning a national tour, and has launched a book project—all to encourage his peers to make a difference in their communities. A sophomore communications major at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York City, Billy spoke to WKCD from his family’s home in Spencerport, a suburb of Rochester, NY.
‘I had to do something’
Afterwards, everybody was freaking out trying to figure out what to do, and the schools were trying to decide what to do, and I just kept saying to my mom that I had to do something. I was raised in a Christian household, and my parents always taught me to try to help others, to be involved and be productive, so I just had to do whatever I could to make sure it never happened again.
We talked to a family friend about making a video documentary about youth violence, but that would have cost around $30,000. Eventually we decided on an interactive website, where kids could vent and talk to their peers and get information on anti-violence and anti-discrimination. My parents helped me find GeoCities, Yahoo’s free webhosting, and a friend helped put the site together—after all this time I still don’t know how to do html! Later we found a web provider to sponsor the site for us. They gave us unlimited space and free email accounts and that has really helped us grow.
Then about two years ago, we had our first event, a mini-tour, where we brought one of the Columbine survivors (Evan Todd) here to Rochester. We raised about $1,200 to pay for the trip, and he spoke to students in four high schools and two youth programs in about 24 hours! He had a really positive message for youth, and everyone thought it was great.
Peace Project 2003
Then next thing we did was the Peace Project 2003, an event we had last April in New York City. The idea was to incorporate teen speakers and socially-conscious celebrities into a performance that can change young minds, motivate teens, and make our world a better and safer place for everyone.
I had 16 college friends who helped me organize it—I learned an incredible amount about what it takes to host a large event. We raised $9,000, mostly by writing letters and relentlessly making phone calls; we had to rent the auditorium, rent sound equipment, we paid for the buses so one school could send students. But we ended up with 500 kids—inner city high school students, and suburban kids, plus some college students—and we put together a three-hour program.
For speakers, we had Richard and Evan (the two Columbine survivors), plus Miss Teen USA (Vanessa Semrow), and Ned Vizzini, the teenage author of the new book Teen Angst? Naaah... A Quasi-autobiography. Plus we had Julie Stoffer from MTV, and she played with her band Bunkbed Incident, and Black Ice, a poet who performs on Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam.
We were able to get Joe Turillo, a New York City firefighter from September 11th who was pulled out of the rubble. He broke nearly every bone in his body and was in the hospital for six months. He’s a bit older than our audience, so we weren’t really sure how well that would work—sometimes teens are more receptive to someone their own age. But Joe was really great. He spoke about how youth have to watch their actions, their thoughts, and what they say, in order to relate positively to one another. The evaluations we got back were almost all really good—the kids had fun, teachers came up to us afterwards to thank us, and we definitely want to do it again next year. But I’ll start planning much earlier!
Branching Out
Julie, Richard, and I are currently planning a national speaking tour—we just got an agent to help us with the logistics—as a way to reach out to our peers. We’ve been working like crazy on the curriculum for it. We’re also working on a book project—at the moment it will be self-published, but we’re hoping to find a publisher. The working title is the Teen Life Book, and we’re collecting stories from youth leaders who are making a difference. We’ll add commentary before and after their stories, on the same issues we address on the tour: sex, violence, discrimination, personal image, and substance abuse. We hope to get the book into schools to give students examples, to inspire them to make something of themselves. We want to show that through activism so many rewarding things can come about.
My major focus now is on the speaking tour—and getting back into school. School has to come first; I do manage to get my work done, but there are a lot of late nights! I go out with friends sometimes but maybe don’t have as much social time as I’d like. But that’s okay; it’s worth it. I like all that I’m doing. It’s fun, and hopefully it’s making a difference—at least I like to think that it is.
My long-term goal is to be a journalist, but a good journalist, if there is such a thing! I’d like to be the kind of journalist that can make a difference and send positive messages about youth. There are so many bad messages about youth out there today. You look at TV and at the movies, and you see kids partying it up. They associate drinking with friendship and friendship with fitting in. I would never point a finger at the media and say that it’s your fault, but they do have a role in it. So I’d like to be a journalist that made a difference. There are just so many things that need to be changed.
I was a freshman in high school at the time of the Columbine shootings. As it happened, I was home sick that day, so I watched the whole thing on TV. It had a big impact on me. Our towns are so similar, the kids were my age—if it happened there it could happen here, and that really scared me.
This summer I spent a week in June with a project called People Pedalling Peace. It’s an event organized by Sandra McSweeney, whose 14-year-old daughter was killed by a stray bullet. She brings together family members of other victims of youth violence for a bike tour to raise money and awareness. We rode about 140 miles in three days, from Norfolk, Virginia through Maryland to Washington, DC. We finished at the Lincoln Memorial, where we had a press conference and everyone had the chance to tell their stories. The ultimate goal is to have a national monument built in Washington to honor the victims of youth violence. It was a great experience—I’m definitely going again next year.