Last year Albany High students were introduced to the concepts of hope and change. No, not Barack Obama’s campaign messages, but rather, two designated days for the welfare of our community: Challenge Day. So powerful and stirring were these experiences that seniors demanded the school host an unprecedented third Challenge Day.
The school community spent $9000 in 2007-2008 for 300 Challenge Day participants participants. Two 2008-2009 Challenge Days are scheduled: Sophomores on December 10, 2008 and Juniors/Seniors on December 17. Any participants from the 2007-2008 Challenge Days are invited to contact Shelly Ball in room 111 to become student facilitators for the upcoming Challenge Day. Student facilitators will be trained to complement the role of the parent volunteers. Possible student facilitators should bear in mind that a training session is required, and scheduled for December 2: one after school and one in the evening at 7:00 PM.
Sign-ups for Challenge Day will open mid-November. Only 100 students will be accepted per day, with priority to those who have not attended a Challenge Day. The Challenge Day planning committee meets every other Thursday, having had a meeting on October 16, 2008.
A big thanks go out to the sponsors of Challenge Day: AHS PTSA, the Albany Community Foundation, and the AHS Leadership class.
For those who have not attended a Challenge Day, it is a day-long event dedicated to an elusive problem within society: bullying. Challenge Day seeks to stem the problem at its roots, bringing awareness to the unseen consequences of hurtful actions.
Stay tuned for Challenge Day updates, and feel free to contact Shelly Ball (sball@albany.k12.ca.us) for more information, or if you wish to submit your personal testimony to Challenge Day.
Wait, we’re spending money on this? Isn’t there something better we could do with it rather than make us feel fuzzy inside?
oh god it really costs that much? what a waste! everyone cries together, spends the next week hugging, and then goes back to hating each over. buy something useful with that money…like a new campus popo.
Hey anonymous try to think more. Like what about the cost when kids who feel bullied and harassed don’t come to school. Real dollars don’t come to the district because of absenteeism but even bigger than that is the cost of what’s happening to both the bully and the kid getting slammed.
Give me a break…challenge day is for slackers who want to skip class. The money should be used for something to benefit everyone on the campus, not just the select few who are given permission to not go to their classes where they actually are learning. Think of how many trees that could be bought or how that money could be used to improve the desks etc.
i dont think you understand what an impact this actually makes. for the kids who have always felt alone they can finally feel like others are also going through the same stuff and that everyone has problems. this program can save the lives of the kids that feel so alone in the world. this gives them a pathway to interact with others who have the same issues