Quincy Reporter

Republican State Sen. Jil Tracy stands proudly behind filing a resolution for an official "BeLikeGrace Day" in honor of a Liberty teen killed in an ATV accident. 

“I filed this resolution to honor this young lady and help her family celebrate her life because she had the kind of attitude in a pandemic that all of us need,” Tracy said on the Senate Floor of Senate Resolution 28, which honors Grace Schell. “This ‘Be like Grace,' let’s show grace every day; respect, happiness, gratitude every day. I’m happy to bring this resolution and I ask for you to support it.”

The legislation seeks to name Oct. 4 as BeLikeGrace Day, marking the one-year date since the 15-year-old died.

“The BeLikeGrace phenomenon is about a young lady who died tragically, but it started out with people that knew her wanting to celebrate her life because this young woman always had a Christian, friendly attitude towards everything, a smile, a cup’s full not half-full attitude, and hundreds of people started displaying signs that said 'be like Grace' and in other countries it spread,” Tracy added.

Supporters of the legislation insist they can only hope more people will seek to live their lives as Schell always seemed to.

“It cannot be explained why such a young kid had all of these things inside of her,” the belikegrace.com website says. “She was always called to a higher purpose and maybe Grace knew that her impact here on earth had to show what God could do for all of us in heaven.”

Tracy has also been instrumental in leading the charge for ethics reforms in Springfield, recently attending a Senate Republican Caucus news conference to discuss the importance and the urgency of reworking the statehouse rules.

"We're here to discuss how we can best improve our processes to protect the people of Illinois against corruption and hold politicians accountable when they break the public trust," she said. "For too many years, the corruption of a few bad actors has cast a shadow over the good work done by so many lawmakers in our capital. We must not allow their efforts to be diminished any longer."