Feb. 22 — Challenging students to let their guard down

The Challenge Day team inspires Sumner High School

Andrew Hosford / of the Herald

Sumner High School was recently taken over by Pam Dunn and Randy Fortes as part of the Challenge Day inspirational program.

The duo led 100 students and more than 20 teachers into the auxiliary gym for a full day of activities aimed to connect, confront and inspire.

“Kids will tell you it is the single most important day of their lives,” said Cassie Meath, vice principal at the school.

Funded by the local Sumner Rotary club, the program is in its fourth year at the high school.

Since the first class, some 800 students and dozens of teachers and administrators have participated in the two-day program.

“In the first year, everyone was blindsided by it,” said Casey Adcox, a health teacher that helps coordinate the visits.

Adcox has shown the Challenge Day DVD in his classroom for years explaining that the lessons are invaluable to anyone trying to improve as a person.

The Challenge Day events bring the lessons he teaches in the classroom to life.

“When you can get them here they show their true colors,” he said about the students in attendance.

Presenters Fortes and Dunn do all they can to break barriers and provide an environment where people feel safe enough to share their secrets and anxieties.

“We give them permission to be real and see and listen to each other,” Dunn said.

Challenge Day headquarters are based in Concord, Calif. and the pair was in Washington for the week going to schools all around the south Puget Sound region.

They came for the first presentation on Jan. 9 but the second day had to be rescheduled for last week because of snow. The delay did not adversely affect the influence they had on students and staff.

“This program is more of a transition for me,” Manny Launiuvao, a senior at the school, said.

He said the Challenge Day program, along with church, transformed his personality and life.

After he graduates in June of this year, he plans to head to a local community college with hopes of eventually graduating from the University of Washington.

“I used to be a knucklehead,” Launiuvao said. “I’m not anymore, it is much easier for me to get close to people.”

To get their point across, the team uses a variety of stories, lessons and analogies that allow the audience to figure out the answers.

“Dropping the waterline” is emphasized throughout the day. Comparing people to icebergs, Dunn said the majority of an iceberg, like a person’s personality, is hidden beneath the surface.

She hopes everyone that goes through the program has a chance to open up and experience emotions they are not used to.

“How do you let more of who you are be seen,” she asked.

Between hugging, dancing and playing a variety of purposeful games, many of the audience members were wiping tears away and communicating with people they never met.

At the end of the day, the group formed a circle around Dunn and Fortes to recap the lessons of the day.

“You have the right to be 100 percent of who you are,” Dunn told the crowd

By the end, everyone was holding hands and swinging to the sound of the inspirational music blasting over the speakers.

To close, Dunn made one final point.

“What is said in this room does not leave this room,” she said.

If the students are anything like Launiuvao, though, there is no way the influence of the program can be contained within the auxiliary gym walls.