If you are looking for an alternative way of gift-giving this year, we have the perfect gift for your loved ones: donate!

Did you know that up to 25% of U.S. students are bullied each year? According to PBS.org, as many as 160,000 students may stay home from school on any given day because they are afraid of being bullied. Our young people are in crisis, more than ever before, and you can help.

Over the 2008-2009 school year, tens of thousands of students were taught about connection, love and respect in Challenge Day workshops. This year, we have 725 programs scheduled already, but there are still many schools that aren’t able to afford this important work due to cuts of already-tight school budgets.

Challenge Day, as a 501(c)3 non-profit, relies on your donations to keep bringing this crucial work to young people all over the country. With your donation, you not only help us to continue awakening young people to the possibilities of acceptance, compassion and understanding, but you will be experiencing the joy of charitable giving!

Your donation is tax-deductible, and makes a great gift! We are happy to send an acknowledgement letter to the person of your choice. To make a donation, please go to our website and Donate Online!. Thank you so much for your continued support. We would not exist without you!

We are so proud to announce that John F. Kennedy University has chosen our very own Richard Dutra St.-John as Alumnus of the Year. Rich was honored in a ceremony on October 17th, where he was presented with an honorary certificate to commemorate this prestigious award.

Each year, John F. Kennedy University selects five alumni — one representing each school of the University — to honor as the University’s Alumni of the Year. Rich, who received his MA in Clinical Psychology from the school in 1985, was chosen to represent JFK University’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology.

Steve Stargardter, President of JFK University, had this to say about the recognition of this year’s five esteemed alumni: “We welcome this opportunity to applaud these individuals who are excellent role models for both our alumni and students. Each has gone on from JFK University to apply the knowledge and insights gained to the benefit of their fields, society, as well as themselves.”

Past Alumni of JFK University include: Debbie Ford, New York Times #1 best-selling author of The Dark Side of the Light Chasers and founder of the Ford Institute for Integrative Coaching at JFKU and the Essentials Coaching program, Martin J. Reed, Director of Financial Planning and Analysis for the Internet search engine Ask Jeeves and current Vice President of Finance and MIS for CoolSystems, Inc., Joseph Canciamilla, former member of the California State Assembly, and many others.

UPDATE! The cut-off for accepting applications is February 13th!

It’s that time again and we are more excited than ever to start gearing-up to hold Challenge Day Leader Auditions in March! There have been many inquiries coming into the office about how one applies and auditions to become a Leader, and we are more than happy to help you begin the process.

Being a Challenge Day Leader isn’t just a job; it’s a way of life. Our Leaders travel all over the country, working and playing long hours to bring Challenge Day to thousands of students and adults. The training process is an intense 6 months of self-inquiry and learning; our Leaders are polished and ready when they step into their first circle of students. The life of a Leader isn’t for everyone, so we’d love for you to start experiencing Challenge Day on a first-hand basis so you can be well-informed before you apply.
Before you send your application, please be sure that you have done these three required things:
1. Watch our videos online here.
2. Attend (at least) one Challenge Day. Search for Challenge Days near you here.
3. Attend a 3-day Next Step Workshop. Find out more info here.

Next, please send in your completed application, which you can find here (please note: this application cannot be completed online - be sure to open it and save it, and/or print it out). After completed applications are received at the Challenge Day office, applicants are contacted for a phone interview. Some applicants are invited to come to Leader Auditions; which may include a second “call-back” day. From there, the individuals who will be invited into the training are selected.

All Leaders are required to be 21 years old or older, and live in the San Francisco Bay Area for the duration of the training process and their employment with Challenge Day. To find out more , please go to our website here. Also, please feel free to invite others who you think might be a good leader to participate in Challenge Day and the Next Step, and if they are so inspired, to apply! We are excited to hear from you!

One of the most important and often-asked questions heard at the Challenge Day office is, “How do schools pay for Challenge Day?” We hear so many great ideas for fundraisers when we talk to coordinators, so we thought we would share one of the many success stories of communities gathering to make Challenge Day a possibility.

Spalding Ashley and Debbie Mazorra, Challenge Day coordinators for Northgate High School, held a very successful and delicious fundraiser on September 19^th. Hosted at the home of Spalding and Dan Ashley, the intention was to raise funds for upcoming Challenge Days at their school in Walnut Creek, California.

After a silent auction of various wonderful donated items, guests were invited to indulge in tastings provided by local restaurants and wineries while listening to the sounds of Jim Cannata, Geoff Carter and Mike Williams, otherwise known as the three-piece band, Nuance. All told, the night was a rousing success and raised over $21,000!

Not only were the Northgate High Challenge Day programs fully funded, but there was more than enough money left over to donate generously to the Challenge Day general fund. JFK University, who is providing Northgate students support following Challenge Day using interns from their Counseling Program, also donated funds for an entire Challenge Day.

“I really had no idea what to expect on our first attempt, and really thought of this as training ground,” said Spalding. “We were thrilled with the generosity of our guests and donors and so grateful for the amazing support, and my ‘partner in crime’, Debbie Mazorra, was instrumental in SO many ways.  She secured auction items, wineries, and… kept us all motivated throughout. Mostly my thanks go out to all the restaurants and wineries who donated so generously as well as all the businesses and private donors who made the auction such a success!   Also to all our volunteers - adults and teens - who supported us behind the scenes, and gave so generously of their time and passion!”

To find out more about how to fund Challenge Days, please see our website here.

I was fortunate to participate in Challenge Days for seven years, and every single time I felt refreshed and inspired. It was continuously the most genuine, positive, and influential experience. The Challenge Day program provided the classes in my school the jump they needed to start building the community we all craved. It guided us to recognize how we are related, how we can support each other, and how we are not alone in our feelings and experiences. Any student who attended Challenge Day was exposed to a new perspective of understanding that is impossible to lose. The “Be the Change” message [Challenge Day] instilled did not just mean get active in the community, but also we can be the change to make our lives, relationships, or grades what we want them to be.

Outside of the school environment, the tools and messages of Challenge Day have been a constant self-reminder and motivator. With the help of our county’s follow-up initiative, Monroe Youth Challenge Program (MYCP), my sisters and I were able to leverage this inspiration and the networks created from the event to fuel a non-profit initiative called Hands on Hands, which from 2003 to 2008 raised over $20,000 to support underprivileged children in Kenya. Now in college, I have been honored to serve on the Board of Directors for Challenge Day and plan to continue this role for the next two years. I truly have Challenge Day to thank for exposing me to the power of social connection and it is through their work that I have discovered my passion for positive youth development. Now at Tufts University, I am pursuing a degree in Issues in US Education and Child Development and spending all my extracurricular effort developing a program model to support and sustain the Be the Change movement along with a group of students from Harvard and Tufts University

For everyone who stands in a Challenge Day it’s impossible to discount the power of the activities and discussions. If you attend a Challenge Day you see a lot of hugging, a lot of talking, and potentially a lot of tears- but those traits only represent how comfortable and supported people feel in that room with each other. Their work is intense and empowering, and it’s effective.

While leaving the grocery store I found a wallet on the ground. Determined to find out whose it was so I could return it to them, I searched the wallet for some way to reach the person. While looking, I also saw about 7 credit cards, ID, and about 900 dollars in cash. Finally, I found a business card, and sure enough it matched the name on the driver’s license. So I called and left message after message. When the man finally answered his phone he sounded so relieved. I told him that I would meet him at the same grocery store that I found it at (always good to do things like that in a public place). Standing by the checkout lines, in a fairly small grocery store with only about 4 registers and 6 aisles, recognizing him from his ID picture I saw him walk in. I walked up to him and said, “Have you missed it?” He seemed surprised by the fact that I was so young, and was probably preparing himself for all the cash to be gone. When he looked and saw that everything but his business card had been untouched he tried offering me 100 dollars. Refusing to take the cash, we were making quite the scene in the grocery store with a conversation of “No, really, please, take it,” and “No, I really can’t.” By this time, he had told me that that if he had not gotten his ID back then he wouldnt have been able to fly home because he was on vacation. After refusing time and again to take the 100 dollars, I told him the way he could pay it forward would to be to give it to charity. So he then walked over to a jar at one of the registers and put a 100 dollar bill into it to donate to the American Cancer Society. I think we both left with a great feeling of doing something good, and setting a good example for everyone that saw it transpire in the store. It was a good day.

Yesterday, I had a routine meeting with my high school counselor. He asked me why I was so stressed out with school, and instead of telling him the usual laundry list of things — hard classes, my job, a lot of extracurriculars– I actually opened up to him more and told him what was really stressing me out. I spent a solid fifteen minutes crying, but it was genuinely liberating to be able to “let air out of my balloon” (that’s a Challenge Day-ism). He helped me to understand what I have control over, and is now going to work with me on finding a strategy and creating an action plan. I now feel motivated to actually have a real conversation with my mom; one that isn’t only about the surface details of my life. It’s going to be hard, but I know can do it.
I love Challenge Day! Thank you so much for the truly inspiring work all of you do on daily basis.

-two time Challenge Day alum from CA

I have been an adult facilitator with Challenge Days for the past three years now, and the following story shows how Challenge Days really does help ALL members of our community not just students.

I was in the doctor’s office with my husband and he was wearing a Be the Change shirt that I had gotten as an adult facilitator during Challenge Day. One of the nurses stopped us and nearly shouted, “Where did you get that?”, we explained I had gotten it when I participated earlier that year. She proceeded to tell us a story of how her family had always been relatively tight knit and they were generally very happy, until her son became a freshman in high school. He started coming home from school very unhappy and began detaching himself, emotionally, from their family unit. They considered themselves to have strong Christian values but she said that didn’t seem to be helping. Her son attended a Challenge Day and she said one of his main tormentors had apologized and vowed to “Be the Change”. Her son was so excited when he came home that day and his life really was changed as was their entire family’s. This was several months after that, the bully had kept his promise, and she said her son was actually becoming friends with the boy who had previously been bullying him and he even joined our “Be the Change” team. By the end of her story she was in tears and so was I. I believed in the power of Challenge Days before this but I now see that the effects go far beyond that day and out into our community and for that I thank everyone who has helped make Challenge Days happen at our school and all over!!!!!! I hope that everyone, adult or child, gets a chance to be involved with Challenge Days at some point in their life. Please keep up the good work.