Today was Rachel's rally at Munn Elementary School in Spencerport.

"We all took a pledge to commit to kindness and compassion in the building," said Principal Michael Canny.

It's the first year the school of nearly 400 kids took on Rachel's challenge. The program is in memory of Rachel Scott, one of the victims of the Columbine shooting. The challenge: Getting students to respond with positive words, attitudes, and actions.

"Rachel's challenge means to me when you be kind to others, it spreads around to the whole world and when that happens the world will change," said 5th grader Michael Sero.

"When you show younger kids kindness they pass it on to even younger kids, then when they are older they can be better and show other kids to be kind," said 5th grader Sofia Palmieri.

Principal Michael Canny says the impact is evident.

"I track the number of office visits - students who need a time out, students who need some direction to make a better choice.  Our office referrals from a year ago to today are down about 60 percent," said Canny.

The students can see how far they've come in the last year, each one of these links represents one act of kindness. This chain stretches 3,000 links long.

"We taught kids not only what it was like to accept a link, but how do you give a link.  How do you give a link to a classmate, how do you give a link to a peer, how do you give a link to your mom or dad," said Canny.

At the end of today's rally they released more than 400 balloons, each with a positive message from one of the students - changing the world, one act of kindness at a time.

"I've seen people saying thank you or I really appreciate it," said Sero.

If you would like more information on Rachel's challenge click here.