VIDEO: Hailee Steinfeld Consoles A Grieving High School On Long Island

Hailee Steinfeld performed Wednesday night on Long Island at a vigil for a 16 year-old that died last week in a terrible accident. Leah Kuczinski was a student at New Hyde Park Memorial High School and was a huge fan of Steinfeld’s; she even had tickets and meet-and-greet passes to see the artist later this year.

So as the school planned out Wednesday night’s vigil, Tiffany Salcedo decided to start an online campaign in an attempt to get Steinfeld to attend it. The Spanish teacher’s tweet went viral. Students at the school followed suit by taking to social media and flooding the Academy Award-nominated actress’ accounts with mentions, in addition to imploring for the help of others in the music industry.

Those gathered at the school’s football field didn’t suspect anything regarding Steinfeld when a guitar began to play during the vigil. It was the opening notes of “Starving,” Steinfeld’s hit that she collaborated on with Zedd and Grey. Hailee performed an acoustic version of the song before meeting with Salcedo and a few of Leah’s closest friends.

Coincidentally enough, Steinfeld told me last May that the origin of that song can be traced back to social media; a fan tweeted her and suggested she and Zedd collaborate on a song. The final result went three times platinum in the U.S., top 10 in five different countries and cracked the top 5 at pop radio.

But perhaps most importantly, it brought a smile and a few tears of joy to a grieving community on Wednesday evening in a gesture of class and kindness that surely no one will ever forget.

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