HONESDALE, PA — All that orange you might have seen around Honesdale last week probably wasn’t related to Halloween.

October 22 was the third, now annual, Go Orange Day in celebration of Rachel’s Challenge, and it has become a nearly universal observance in Wayne County. Its many visuals were apparent in the orange T-shirts worn by participants as well as highway billboards and orange ribbons along Main Street parking meters.

Rachel’s Challenge is based on the life and writings of Rachel Joy Scott, the first student who was killed during the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado in 1999. Her journals spoke of making positive personal goals, tolerance and kindness to others, and the celebration is designed to instill those qualities into everyday lifestyles.

Rachel’s Challenge was launched in four area school districts in 2013, when organizers said it reached more than 10,000 people in Wayne, Pike and Susquehanna counties.

This year a new visual, story ribbons carrying participants’ handwritten messages describing their efforts to live Rachel’s Challenge, were added.

Participants were challenged to distribute flat lengths of ribbon to be inscribed and bring them to a community rally on October 22, at the Salvation Army’s Camp Ladore and Conference Center in Waymart, where they were to be linked into a symbolic “Chain of Kindness.”

Rachel’s Challenge participants appeared at the county commissioners’ October 22 meeting where organizers Kimmie Yarrish-Simon, Sarah Hopkins and Kristen Gardas invited the commissioners to the rally and brought them challenge ribbons to inscribe.

“We all have the desire to be good and passionate,” Commissioner Jonathan Fritz said, adding, “Why can’t that be our default reaction? Rachel’s Challenge is empowering the young to go to that default kindness setting.”

Commissioner Wendell Kay said that with the schools, hospital and public involvement, “Everyone will appreciate that the Rachel’s Challenge movement was central to Wayne County… and meaningful, but its longevity wasn’t expected.” He said he was inspired by the continuing effort. “It’s a reminder of why we’re here.”

At a more grassroots level, Commissioner Brian Smith, who also drives a Wayne Highlands school bus, said he’s seen the impact of the challenge in the kids on the bus. “The kids get off the bus now saying ‘thank you;’ they never did before.”

In other business, all three commissioners again commented critically on the ongoing statewide Department of Environmental Protection program to remove “hazardous” dam impoundments serving lakeside communities, claiming the DEP “skipped” intermediate parts of the process requiring public comment.

Kay called the process “an ecological disaster” for eagles and fish, noting that at least two spring-fed wells serving homes had gone dry since the process began.

The commissioners also held the first public hearing for proposals to share $195,333 to be available through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. Applications can be made to the county for funding through December 11, said grant coordinator Wayne Redevelopment Authority Director Jackie Young.