Hundreds of SoCal students gather to participate in Kindness Carnival in Woodland Hills

WOODLAND HILLS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Hundreds of kids from Malibu, Oxnard and the west San Gabriel Valley gathered at Pierce College for a carnival focused on kindness.

"Treat people how you want to be treated. Be kind to you and others. And if somebody's stuck, help," said Kylah Realyn Goldenjones, a student who participated.

It's the biggest-ever event of its kind for the local Boys and Girls Club. They partnered with the Kindness Program to make the event happen.

Founder Lori Milgard of the Kindness Program said she started it because it's needed.

"My childhood growing up, we had so much kindness. It was very calm and easy, there was not as much bullying and it's just changed so much, I think we need to get back to that... I saw something on TV regarding bullying and watching these kids suffer and I felt I had to do something. And I had some foundation money to be able to do something, to maybe make a small change. I just couldn't sit and watch this happen to these kids," Milgard said.

The event featured carnival rides, an In-N-Out truck, plenty of kindness reminders and a pledge ceremony.

"The pledge is just something that they're committing to. We can all say be nice be kind, but if you're pledging to something, I think it takes it to another level," Milgard said.

It's helped the kids learn a lot about themselves, each other and the world we live in.

This is the second year of the program. The hope is that it will expand and will help get the message out to more youth.

"We run this program at the Boys and Girls Club. That's where we launched it, but I would hope to see this some day in some of the schools and have it expand through other organizations," Milgard said.