Students release emotions at powerful Challenge Day

Editor’s Note: This column was written by Stearns High School students. Their advisers are Sue Buzzell and Eric Steeves.

Imagine spending an entire day opening up to people you may not know. Imagine laughing, crying and emotionally connecting with these people. Imagine a day where all of these people look past their differences and realize they are not alone. Imagine learning how to feel safe outside your comfort zone. Imagine a day full of witnessing miracles.

This is what happened Nov. 6, when the Stearns High School civil rights team and peer counselors attended the Challenge Day conference sponsored by Acadia Hospital. Other schools in attendance were Schenck, Woodland and Bucksport high schools. More than 80 students and facilitators gathered at Camp Jordan on Branch Lake for the event.

Challenge Day shows people that common problems such as drug abuse, bullying, teasing and eating disorders stem from a greater problem: loneliness. Challenge Day subtly forces individuals to look at the issues being discussed, and to look inside themselves.

Challenge Day raises self-esteem and tries to change peer pressure into peer support. Charine and Justin, our facilitators, worked well together to inspire us to “Be the Change” in our lives, schools and communities. The day began with a few fun activities, which made us comfortable with each other. As the day progressed, we became more relaxed, and the activities became more emotional.

The emotional climax of the day was the “power shuffle” activity, which was designed to manifest oppression. In this activity, a player crossed the line of tape if a statement Charine made applied to that player. The people who crossed the line represented a group that is oppressed, and the people who stayed represented the oppressors. After crossing the line, the players turned and faced those who did not cross. Those people who did not cross saw the pain in the faces of the oppressed. The activity showed participants they are not alone on either side of the line.

Statements included in this exercise were:

“Cross the line if you are Jewish, or come from a Jewish family.”

“Cross the line if someone you know has died because of tobacco.”

To the latter statement, nearly everyone crossed the line.

One of the most powerful statements was, “Cross the line if you have ever been a child.”

It was surprising to see not everyone cross the line.

One woman, who had been to a few Challenge Day seminars before, said this was the first time she had been able to cross the line.

This was an incredibly emotional game, and it brought everyone in the room closer together.

The students from Millinocket who attended are excited to bring Challenge Day and its ideas back to Stearns High School. Trisha MacDonald, a junior at Stearns, said, “Not only did I learn things about people I didn’t know, I found out certain aspects of people’s lives that I didn’t know about, even though they were some of my best friends. I also learned about myself.”

Another junior from Stearns, Janessa Nason, said that it was “definitely an eye-opening experience.”

Hilary Arsenault, a Stearns sophomore, said Challenge Day “made me become a more outgoing person.”

Everyone from Stearns who attended Challenge Day agreed it was a wonderful experience that changed how they perceive themselves and others. We hope to be able to present Challenge Day to our students next year.

Carmen Bernardini is a junior peer counselor. Mike Nicholson, Michelle Landry and Jenny Power are juniors from the civil rights team.

Schools participating in Student Union include Hampden Academy, Brewer High School, John Bapst Memorial High School, Old Town High School, Mount Desert Island Regional High School, Stearns High School in Millinocket, Nokomis Regional High School, Hermon High School and Schenck High School in East Millinocket.