Challenge Day gets praise from participants
BRITTANY TIDWELL

JUDY DURR
Over 200 students participated in Challenge Day recently at Yosemite High School. Students from Ahwahnee High School also participated as did people from the community and school staff members. The project is coordinated by the Peer Communication class at YHS under the direction of teacher Nancy Lusby. This year Lacy Abbott made Challenge Day her Senior Project. Students and adults alike had high praise for the event and express the belief that it will cause positive changes to occur on campus.

Challenge Day was a success for the second year. The whole purpose of Challenge Day, according to Nancy Lusby, peer communications counselor and teacher, “was to give teachers, students and adults a chance to get real with each other.”

Now this event is becoming an annual one with hopes to continue on far into the future of Yosemite High School. Teachers, pastors, counselors, parents and business people flooded in for the two activity-packed days on Tuesday, February 24, and Wednesday, February 25. Between 240-250 people attended, including approximately 200 students ranging from freshmen to seniors, all ready for the change that may or may not take place on campus. There were also 36 teachers and staff of YHS (including two district trustees) and 18 adult participants from around the community.

One high school Junior said, “Challenge Day was a simply moving and amazing day. The experience was positive and just an all-around great time. I hope that the feeling that was present the entire day remains on campus for the rest of the years and years to come.”

Lacy Abbot, senior and peer mediator who organized the program for her Senior Project, mentioned that last year students had a problem with confidentiality and keeping to their promise to conceal private information. This year, the staff and mentors were forced to stress the importance of keeping private information confidential and that it is the single most important point of Challenge Day.

Some of the same activities were played this year as they were last year, such as: “freeze tag,” “If you're wearing,” “Hug Tag” and “Sitting Beach Ball Volleyball.”

The most amazing activity, according to Abbott, was called “Crossing the Line.” This is an activity that allowed people to see how many others experience the same thing that they do; an emotional, but moving event that enabled others to feel together and not alone in their distress, she said.

A high school senior stated, “It was a shame that this program wasn't here my freshman and sophomore years also. There has been such a positive feeling between strangers that attended the event that I really needed to feel my first years on campus. I hope this program becomes annual, this campus needs the kind of influence and support that this event has brought.”

Abbott said “We hope that the bonds that developed will continue to grow and that people will continue to grow and that people will continue to grow and that people will continue to treat each other with respect, compassion and that people won't judge each other by what they look like, what they wear or their social status.”

Her final words of encouragement are: “One person can make a difference and one smile can save a life.”

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