In assemblies at schools around Central Florida students were introduced to Rachel's Challenge recently.

Rachel Scott was the first victim of the Columbine High School shootings in April of 1999. After reading her diaries and reflecting on her life her family formed Rachel's Challenge. An organization devoted to helping students make a profound change in the world by starting chain reactions of kindness and compassion.

"Let's be the ones, let's be the group that helps everybody else out, who says I'm going to put my needs, my wants to the side, and try to reach out to somebody else. I mean if this girl can do it then why can't I," Cody Hodges tells the students.

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WATCH: Friends of Rachel Club - VIDEO | SLIDESHOW

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Hodges, a former college and pro football quarterback, travels the country presenting Rachel's Challenge to students.

"It's a powerful story about the act of kindness that one girl's life can make on a ton of people and how just doing small things can lead to big things. I knew it was something that I wanted to be a part of," Hodges said.

"I was young at the time of the shooting," 8th grader Lyndsey said. "I didn't know anything about it until we talked about it in school and I realized it was a big deal, a horrible thing."

Presenting Rachel's Challenge is one thing, but keeping the Challenge alive is the real challenge. Cody Hodges told the students that if they were inspired then they shouldn't let that inspiration fade.

And so a group of Chain of Lakes Middle Schoolers stayed behind after the assembly to learn about the Friends of Rachel Club.

17:56:25 "The point of friends of Rachel is to establish a group of students who are going to meet and who are going to continue to do things every day, every week to keep the Rachel's Challenge message in front of everybody," Cody Hodges said.

Cody hope's that some of the children took the message to heart. He asked them to hold weekly meetings, to form groups who will welcome new students, befriend the friendless, be the ones who make a difference.

"You know what's going on at your school better than I do. If there's an issue let's get after that issue, make that issue go away," Hodges told the students.

"I think that there shouldn't be racial slurs, that people shouldn't bully each other. We should treat each other like we're best friends. It should be a very happy environment," Kaitlyn, an 8th grader, said.

Cody told the students that keeping Rachel's Challenge alive in their school wasn't up to him, it was up to them.