LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Konocti Unified School District hosted a total of five Challenge Days this school year.

Challenge Day is an organization that provides students with a one day experience in promotion of anti-bullying.

The Web site describes a lot about the day, the activities and the premise of Challenge Day.

The basis for the idea is the quote by Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

They spend six hours with students and adult volunteers to help them to “Notice, Choose, Act!”: Notice how your world is, choose how you want it to be and take action to make it that way.

The students and adults undergo a bonding experience like no other.

This year Konocti Unified and many community based organizations have come together to expand the program to reach seventh and eighth graders and the elementary schools in Clearlake.

Team leaders from Challenge Day came up to Clearlake and presented the program to 110 Burns Valley School students and 74 Pomo students, due in large part to funding from the Redbud Healthcare District.

Lower Lake Elementary students and Lower Lake High School students also took part in the program earlier this month.

Among the adult volunteers in the room on any one of those given five days were teachers and other school staff from the sites, Donna Becnel, superintendent of KUSD and other district staff, Healthy Start employees of Lake County Offices of Education, three Clearlake City Council members, Lake Family Resource Center employees, Redbud Healthcare District Board Members, AmeriCorps Members, clergy and many other interested citizens.

One adult stated that she had thought she was there that day to help the students, but she found that they helped her more than she could have ever imagined.

One of the large components of Challenge Day is a “cross the line” exercise that allows everyone in the room to see that they are not alone in whatever they may be going through.

This very powerful exercise allows students to see that they have more in common with each other and adults than they may have previously thought.  

The day culminated with declarations from students and adults alike, sharing how they will make the future different for themselves and others.  

Lower Lake High School has a club that is an offshoot of this experience called the Be the Change Club, so that students may organize and carry the message forward on their campus.

For more information visit www.challengeday.org .