Note: Originally published as print-only in The Lancaster-Depew Sun Newspaper.

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Mary Badham had no idea how much Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird was going to impact her life when, with no prior experience, she booked her first acting role as Scout at 10 years old. Now, she travels the world spreading the book’s messages of hope, acceptance and integrity. On June 11, Badham visited Depew High School and reflected on her memories of making the film, as well as on her experiences growing up in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama.

While in Depew, she visited English classes currently reading Lee’s novel and also spoke at a public forum. There, she took questions from a panel of 8th grade English students, whose questions centered around Badham’s relationships with her cast mates and interpretation of the novel.

“Throughout this film, I made such incredible friendships,” Badham said. “It was a miracle of experiences that I've had. I mean who would think that I would go to Russia and England and all these different countries for this book?”

Even with such a strong connection to To Kill a Mockingbird, Badham did not actually read the book until she had her first kid. After finally reading Lee’s words, she discovered all the characters and events that she knew nothing about from the film.

“It really gave me a fuller view of not just the family, but of the whole social structure of the village and how things operated,” she said. “It was very much like what I grew up with at home.”

Inspired by the parallels between the novel and her childhood, Badham feels compelled to share how much the issues presented in the novel still exist today.

Depew students also relate to the issues in the novel, which is why they started a good deeds initiative at their school while reading Lee’s book. They called them “RAKs” or random acts of kindness, which were given anonymously to students of various grade levels for the sole purpose of being kind to one another.

Another of their school projects was to depict scenes from the novel from the point of view of Boo Radley’s character. Boo is an omniscient presence who observes most of life from his bedroom window. The students’ finished projects were on display at the event.

“It is what we envisioned what it must look like for a person not directly involved in the storyline, but still someone who sees everything that happens - the good, the bad and the ugliest and the beauty of humanity,” one student on the panel said.

Encompassing these lessons of integrity, empathy and understanding, Badham encourages everyone to pay attention to what's going on in the world today. She specifically advocated for everyone to be like Atticus’ character, who strives for social justice and equality in the novel.

“To Kill A Mockingbird has all the life's lessons that we still seemingly have not learned yet,” Badham said. “I'm so thrilled with this school because your kids seem to really have it together, and I think that speaks to your community being strong and its moral values and its love and respect for your children and the respect that they have for you.”

After answering questions from the panel, the students presented Badham with a “Best of Depew Gift Basket” filled with Depew apparel and accessories to thank her for bringing her lessons of hope, justice and kindness to Depew.