Discovery students put to the challenge

Kiara Twyman and Tera Lynn Stewart embrace during a simulation at Challenge Day in the CrossPointe Church gymnasium.

Discovery Middle School students received a welcomed challenge.

Challenge Day, a six and a half hour experiential program designed to “demonstrate the possibility of love and connection through the celebration of diversity, truth and full expression,” visited Madison this week.

Students from Bob Jones were the first group to meet Feb. 1., Liberty Middle School met Wednesday, Feb. 2 and Discovery Middle School met Thursday.

“The real challenge is when you leave out these doors today,” said Schan Baker, a Challenge Day leader. “I feel like we can all leave here and be the change in the world.”

Avey Gooch, a Discovery student, said Challenge Day, based in Oakland, Calif., is a great way to understand each other’s differences.

“Today was amazing,” Gooch said. “We learned so much about each other.”

Madison City School administrators contacted Challenge Day to come to the area to share their vision and mission of providing youth with a more open mind.

“We want every child and adult that was here today to understand how special they are and how special each other is,” said Dennis James, Madison City Schools safety coordinator.

He said when choosing which students would participate, teachers purposefully picked a “diverse population.”

Since 1987, Challenge Day has served more than 1,000,000 youth in 400 cities.