Up to the challenge

PHIL NELSON THE TRINITY JOURNAL Ice-breaking activities at Challenge Day included games like the one above, where teams of students Friday tried to push a giant beach ball over the line. There are tears during Challenge Day — but what stands out at the workshop for high school students is what they get back. Not teasing. Support.

The Challenge Day workshop, aimed at reducing harassment and bullying while awakening empathy and building connections at high schools, was held last week for Trinity High School students at the Veterans Memorial Hall.

A senior at THS, Melissa Wirth, said after the event that she saw maturity in some students she hadn't known they possessed.

"You get to see people's true side," Wirth said. "You gain more respect for certain people. … It makes you think a lot about your own life."

About 90 to 95 percent of Trinity High students — 100 each day — attended one of four Challenge Days held last week. A few parents opted not to have their child participate.

Challenge Day is a California-based nonprofit program. It was co-founded in 1987 by Rich and Yvonne Dutra- St. John, a couple with experience in education, family therapy and drug intervention seeking to address issues of isolation that can lie behind problems like alcohol and drug use, violence and suicide.

The program has about 22 leaders who visit schools in teams to lead workshops that have been held around the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan and Australia.

The workshops last week were led by an energetic pair, Challenge Day leaders Randy Fortes and Berenice Meza- Aguiar from the Bay Area, with the help of about 20 adult volunteers from the community each day.

On Thursday, the workshop started out high energy with loud music, fun and games. Adults and students are urged to interact with people they don't normally associate with and to begin to open up on different topics, for example, an embarrassing moment in your life. This was just preparation, the ice breakers to get participants ready for the sharing ahead.

It was stressed that any sharing must remain confidential, with the exception of disclosures about being hurt, hurting someone else or themselves.

Some of that hard work was done in smaller groups, and the adult volunteers -- one per group - - were expected to lead the way.

"That's hard," said volunteer Cheryl Capelle. "You're vulnerable in front of kids you don't even know."

"We had to get in groups with people we hardly knew at all," said Morgan Harman, a senior at the high school. "It's really eye opening and makes you realize a lot of things about people you see every day."

In the most emotional event, known as the Power Shuffle, Meza-Aguiar asked that participants cross a line on the floor in response to a long series of questions; for example, if someone close to them had died, if they had been discriminated against or put down, if they or someone they were close to had considered committing suicide. The broad questions tended to generate mass crossings of the line, and many students and adults were in tears.

After each question, facing them was the group — mostly their fellow high school students — who hadn't suffered that particular pain. But they weren't snickering. Some of them were tearing up, too, and many had hands raised in a gesture of support.

The whole group gathered for a discussion at the end of the workshop.

People often turn to drugs and alcohol to escape pain, noted Scott Morris, prevention specialist with Trinity County Behavioral Health who helped to organize the workshops.

"You guys supporting each other, helping each other out are the answers to that," he said.

The workshops were put on by Trinity High School and Trinity County Behavioral Health.

Challenge Days are scheduled in Hayfork next week. This is the second series of Challenge Days to be held in Trinity County after the initial workshops in 2003. It has been made part of the Trinity County Strategic Plan for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention.