Challenge Day made a comeback at the Estevan Comprehensive School this year, focused on helping Grade 9 students connect and grow.

The event, held on March 12 and 13, had community volunteers and the Challenge Day organization based in California.

ECS raised money for the event through a number of fundraisers throughout the community, in coordination with multiple local businesses.

ECS Principal James Jones says that went well for all the students, with progress being made between them.

"The facilitators have a well-developed program where they take students through a series of different activities. The activities in the morning, there's lots of fun and excitement, and then in the afternoon, there's some harder things that they work through where they're trying to break down some of those barriers and getting students to kind of see each other in maybe a different light and understand and help to recognize what some other fellow students go through and then at the end of the day they try to have students leaving on more of a positive note and just a feeling of being connected with a larger group."

Jones says the day earned its namesake by challenging some of the students in the school.

"It's an emotional day for sure, and there there's lots to it. You know, being fully transparent, I think there were some students that were very moved by it and thought it was a really great day, and for other students, it was a challenging day. As a school, we're going to continue to support those students, help to make sure they have positive connections with adults in our building and their peers."

Now the ECS will talk about the event and see what they want to potentially do for their next Challenge Day.

"We got to take some time to reflect on the last couple of days. We need to enter into conversations with our students, our parents, our staff, and the community," said Jones, "That was a part of Challenge Day, to make an informed decision as to what we do next."

Jones thanked the community for their support of the event, along with all of the volunteers who helped make it possible.

ECS Challenge DayPhoto courtesy of Estevan Comprehensive School.