BWHS Challenge Day Donations needed; 2013 Program has $3,500 in matching funds

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

Big Wal­nut High School’s Chal­lenge Day is his­tory, but because Chal­lenge Day is not funded by the school dis­trict – CD sup­port come from dona­tions – orga­niz­ers are already look­ing for 2013 Chal­lenge Day funds.

Big Wal­nut High School has been hold­ing an annual Chal­lenge Day since the 2007-08 school year. Chal­lenge Day is a nation­ally rec­og­nized moti­va­tion pro­gram that brings stu­dents together in a series of close-knit ice­break­ing group activ­i­ties to break down walls cre­ated by bul­ly­ing, teas­ing, clique prob­lems, and other divi­sive and iso­lat­ing activities.

Dur­ing each Chal­lenge Day ses­sion stu­dents expe­ri­ence a hands-on, inten­sive work­shop designed to help them under­stand that we are all human beings, that we need to cel­e­brate our dif­fer­ences and, at the same time, embrace each other.

The pro­gram has been so suc­cess­ful that all Big Wal­nut High School incom­ing fresh­man stu­dents go though the program.

“This year’s Chal­lenge Day was won­der­ful as always,” said BWHS Stu­dent Coun­cil Advi­sor Angie Stooks­bury. “It’s inter­est­ing, because the longer I work with national Chal­lenge Day teams the more I learn. The lead­ers told me that even though the Chal­lenge Day founders match schools up with the most suit­able lead­ers for each dis­trict, the lead­ers still fight over who gets to come to Big Wal­nut. How cool is that?”

Stooks­bury said Chal­lenge Day lead­ers have told her that Big Wal­nut has some­thing spe­cial; and as they travel across the coun­try and go from school to school, they let Stooks­bury know how much Big Wal­nut stands out.

But Chal­lenge Day is expen­sive, Stooks­bury said. Two days worth of Chal­lenge Day – air­fare, room, board and car rental for two California-based Chal­lenge Day facil­i­ta­tors – costs close to $10,000, and the money needs to be in place before the 2013 Chal­lenge Day ses­sion can be scheduled.

But there’s good news.

“As a result of our won­der­ful stu­dents and com­mu­nity, Dr. Robert Houser has gen­er­ously offered to match up to $3,500 in dona­tions for the 2013 school year Chal­lenge Day,” Stooks­bury said. “He did the $3,500 match­ing funds last year after his niece, Olivia Small, told him about Chal­lenge Day.”

Stooks­bury said this year Dr. Houser and his wife Stacey vol­un­teered as Chal­lenge Day adult facil­i­ta­tors; and after expe­ri­enc­ing first hand the impact Chal­lenge Day has on stu­dents they offered the match­ing dona­tion again.

“My hope is that our com­mu­nity mem­bers come through as well,” Stooks­bury said. “Any dona­tions are wel­come, large or small, and helps make Chal­lenge Day hap­pen. There are schools right here in Cen­tral Ohio that have Chal­lenge Day, but they charge stu­dents to attend; and some stu­dents who can­not afford Chal­lenge Day, who really could ben­e­fit from the pro­gram, are left out. We’re try­ing to tell our stu­dents that money doesn’t mat­ter; what mat­ters is how they treat each other.”

For addi­tional infor­ma­tion about the Big Wal­nut High School Chal­lenge Day ini­tia­tive and how to con­tribute as an indi­vid­ual or as a cor­po­rate spon­sor to the 2013 Chal­lenge Day, con­tact Angie Stooks­bury at < angiestooksbury@bigwalnut.k12.oh.us >, or call Stooks­bury at the high school at 740–965-3766, Exten­sion 1207.

Checks made out to Big Wal­nut High School Chal­lenge Day may also be mailed to Big Wal­nut Local School Dis­trict Trea­surer Feli­cia Drum­mey, 105 Baugh­man Street, Suite A, Sun­bury OH 43074.

For more infor­ma­tion about the national Chal­lenge Day pro­gram go to < challengeday.org >.

Posted by Gary Henery on Nov 7 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.