Kindness: recognized as a virtue by nearly all, yet genuinely practiced infrequently in our daily lives. Living life with an outward respect for other human beings is difficult while living in such a busy world, which creates a necessity for moments of recognition. Moments to recognize the values we all believe in, but unfortunately do not practice as frequently as we should. Being one such event, the Kindness Challenge seeks to reinvigorate the kindness in our community, and bring about an environment in which we can all live happy lives full of kindness.

The event took place at the beach. Evidently conjured as a result of many months of planning, tents offering different services lined Tamarack beach. Kind Bar’s tent offered samples of their energy bars, passed out with a smile. Under another tent, the marching band performed pep tunes, providing the event with happy music suitable for the message being conveyed.

“My take on the kindness challenge is just to inspire more kindness to flow through our already kind community,” junior Ben Goldstein said. “Well overall, there’s just a great environment. People are happy, smiling. People here to just support the kindness challenge going on. So, we’ve got the marching band playing some pep tunes and drum line going on. I think the news is here, a couple different stations. A food truck. Nothing on the stage yet.”

One of the main themes conveyed by the event was the need for kindness in our community. When practiced by all, kindness increases the happiness and quality of life for all involved. Event planners sought to spread this message by involving all attendees in a human collage for kindness, initially organizing participants by distributing labeled wristbands.

“I heard about the wristbands,” Goldstein said. “I hear they’re going to make some sort of huge photo with some aerial photography, with all of us making some huge collage. It’s going to spell out kindness matters.”

Unfortunately, at the time of the event, a storm approached Carlsbad. This resulted in difficulties to coordinate the picture of people standing on letters, and rearrangements were made to deal with the situation.

“The high wind ended up blowing up all the letters away,” junior Tim Wright said. “It was a big mess. The people were having trouble standing on the letters, and when the drone went up it was having a hard time staying in one place, the wind kept blowing it away. It was changed to a deformed heart, but I think it worked out in the end, but I don’t even know if the drone ever got a shot. They ended up taking a picture from the cliff, but you could barely see it.”

On the stage set up, key city employees involved in the school district and town spoke, hoping to share their wonderful thoughts on kindness, and how its proliferation in our community will result in noticeable improvements for all of us.

“During the speech, you couldn’t even tell who was speaking or what was going on,” Wright said. “It was way too windy and no one could hear anything at all.”

The event may not have turned out as planned, but the message of the event lives on. Kindness matters. If all of us just take a little effort out of our day, and devote it to actively treating other humans with the kindness they deserve, the effects on our community will be profound, and enjoyed by all.