ESTEVAN — The Estevan Comprehensive School has wrapped up two days of transformation.
On March 12 and 13, all Grade 9 students had a chance to experience the Challenge Day – a program allowing them to feel powerful love and belonging, connect across lines of difference and move towards creating the culture they want in their school.
The event was brought to Estevan by co-founders and leaders Yvonne and Rich Dutra St. John out of California. Over the two days, it engaged around 200 students and about 50 adult volunteers from the community.
Each day saw a different group of kids participating, learning new skills, taking on the challenge of being the change every day and becoming more sensitive to each other.
"It provided me with some really helpful insights. And I learned a lot about people," shared Gwen Le, a Grade 9 ECS student, after the Challenge Day. "I'll be more mindful about what I say to people because I don't know what's going on in their lives, and I might hurt them in some way that I don't know. And I'll express my thoughts clearly, because sometimes people will interpret them the wrong way, and then our relationship's not be the same again."
While emotions were fresh for the students right after the Challenge Day, some adult participants were confident that once the feelings settle, they will create a long-term change for the students and people around them.
Hannah Battersby, who volunteered during the event, was also an ECS student and had an opportunity to experience the Challenge Day herself over 10 years ago. She said it strongly affected her life.
"Challenge Day changed my entire life," Battersby said. "Just the positivity in your own life to be able to bring that out. I try every day to say something nice to somebody or be mindful of kindness."
She said experiencing the Challenge Day as a volunteer was very different, but her previous adventure motivated her to come and help the kids go through that life-changing day.
Other adult volunteers were also impressed with what they've been a part of at the ECS.
"I think it was incredible. The interaction with the kids was incredible. The things that they shared, the vulnerability, their participation, I was quite surprised, because I didn't know what to expect. And it really, really had an impact on me," said Const. Geoff Thiessen with the Estevan Police Service.
"It really gave me an open insight into this generation. They often aren't given the time and effort, and they often are written off, but what I've seen in the room was kids that, I think … can really be world changers in their communities. And it really engaged me, too, to take a look at them with greater purpose and want to invest in them and want to be a part of their life."
"It was amazing. It was quite the opportunity to hang out and see these kids open up to each other, to see them change throughout the day. I thought it was absolutely amazing," said Heidi Hesselink, the United Way Estevan executive director. "I would say my main takeaway from today is that change can happen in a short period of time. Watching these kids go from just casual, whatever children, to actually wanting to make a change in the lives of people around them within one day was pretty amazing to watch."
The leaders also were inspired by the students they got to work with over these two days.
"We had yesterday and today, so we had all the freshmen [Grade 9 students], and they did an incredible job. They often come in shy, and then by the end, they're, apologizing, loving people and thanking peers," said Yvonne Dutra St. John.
"They're co-operative. They were great. The adults were great. It was easy community," Rich added.
Yvonne noted it's beneficial to work with students who are fresh to high school.
"It's beneficial for every group, but what's nice about the freshman year, they're more insecure when they come into high school, and it's a way to bring them together and help them really have some values around supporting each other and being kind to each other," Yvonne said.
The Dutra St. Johns said they'll be in contact with the school to hear about the results of the Challenge Day experience. There is also an app that encourages students to keep doing daily acts of change.
"It's meant to enrol them into doing daily acts of service and change. And say 100 people are here and 70 do it. That's still 70 acts of change today," said Rich.
The event was brought back by the school and the school community council (SCC), with support from local people, businesses, the United Way and other organizations, and the organizers were happy with the results.
"It was a huge success and I'm so proud of everyone who volunteered and participated. A big thank you to the volunteers, the business sponsorship, the various associations and agencies, [principal] James Jones and the ECS and the students for participating," said Kelly McConnell with the SCC.
Jones echoed McConnel’s gratitude to everyone involved and said now it will be the time to reflect on the experience.
“On behalf of the school, we really want to thank all of the people and the businesses and the community volunteers that came forth to make Challenge Day a reality for our students. I can't thank our school community council enough for looking at bringing in a program to help support developing a positive school culture,” Jones said.
“Over the course of the next few months, we'll enter into conversations with parents and students and community members and those that took part in the event to determine our next steps with the program. It's a very emotional thing. And there's a lot to Challenge Day, and I really commend all of our students for taking part. And as a community, we have to think and reflect on and determine our next steps.”
Jones also noted that the facilitators were also really good to deal with.
“They were very passionate about the program that they delivered and really spoke highly of our community and our students,” Jones added.
