Sammamish teens take up the challenge
August 27, 2008
By Ari Cetron
Day-long event strives to break down barriers, empower youth
Teens are cheered as they enter for Challenge Day. Photo by Ari Cetron
The teens seemed bewildered as they came in; a throng of adults was cheered and high-fived as each entered the auditorium at Pine Lake Covenant Church.
Within an hour, they understood what was going on. It was Challenge Day, and it was about the teens understanding more about themselves and others.
“Challenge Day is about what you’re like on the inside,” said Bernice Meza, one of a pair of instructors assisting about 90 adults and teens through an assortment of exercises.
Challenge Day began in 1987, with a husband-and-wife team, Yvonne and Rich Dutra-St. John. The goal of the program is for the children who participate to learn how to feel safe and loved. The pair began hosting seminars and have evolved the program into something with dozens of other teams they send out across the globe.
On Aug. 20, Sammamish got its turn.
The presenters explained that one of the major goals of Challenge Day is to force the students to consider the other people in the room, to look at them with fresh eyes.
“Notice how you are treating people,” Meza said.
They also hope to teach the teens how to break down stereotypes. People often form an opinion of a person based solely on their appearance, Meza said. She wanted people to think about how they come to those conclusions.
“Where did we learn that?” Meza asked.
Sponsored by the non-profit group Friends of Youth, teens and adults mixed in the morning hours.
The high-energy presenters wearing bright red shirts first sought to break through to the teens and explain to them that they are not alone. Meza began by explaining that she has participated in groups around the world like this one and that few things change from one to another. In every group, there are teens who feel alone, isolated, bullied or awkward, she said.
“Young people always have this list, and its always the same list,” she said.
One way to breakout of those feelings is to try and force people to leave their comfort zones, said Christopher Foster, another of the presenters. He explained that most people try to stay in a small area where they are comfortable.
While that can work for a time, it also becomes problematic.
“It can start to feel like a prison,” he said.
To get people out of their comfort zones, the group was, through a series of games, shuffled. Most people ended up meeting the others who were there, and by the end of the shuffling, they started to find they weren’t sitting next to the friends they had come in with.
Even after the first few minutes, people seemed willing to open up to strangers. During the first few exercises, people were paired with others they did not know and had to tell them about a time they were teased or judged for being different, or to name the four things most important to their lives, or their most embarrassing moment.
Few, if any, of the participants hesitated to share these details with the others, although it was understood that whatever they said was confidential and would not leave the room.
For more information about Challenge Day, visit www.challengeday.org.
Editor Ari Cetron can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 233, or samrev@isspress.com.
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