The Estevan Comprehensive School is gearing up to bring back its Challenge Day for Grade 9 students.

The Challenge Day includes a variety of activities designed to encourage community and kindness amongst the students.

ECS did host similar events in the past, with this one looking to be a two-day exercise on March 12 and 13, 2024.

Principal James Jones says that the day is something they've been wanting to bring back for a while.

"This day is something that when you read about it on the line and you hear about testimonials, it's a transformative day for our youth and I'm really excited for that opportunity here at ECS. It's about having fun, it's about leadership, it's about bringing students together and creating positive connections for our youth and our community, and I really feel like it's something that's going to have a positive impact on building a great school culture here at ECS and helping to support the community of Estevan."

Jones says that the skills learned through the day will hopefully help both the school and the wider community.

"The activities are centred around some core competencies that help to support social-emotional learning and this includes self-management, self-awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making, and I think for a leader of this school, anything we can help our young people to help develop those social emotional learning skills is going to have positive benefits, not only here at ECS but in the greater community."

In order to get that day running, they'll look to fundraise some money, with Kelly McConnell, a member of ECS's School Community Council explaining their goal.

"The cost to run Challenge Day is about $20,000. We will run Challenge Day for two days with 200 students. We're looking for community support by way of donations and also a sponsor for the student's lunch each day."

"We have started our fundraising campaign with a cash calendar raffle. Tickets are $10 and we will be drawing every day in January for a cash prize. Tickets are available at Henders Drugs, Frank's Menswear, House of Stationary, Rooted Family Chiropractor, Diamond Skin Solutions, Sud Zone Car Wash, and ECS. We will also be selling tickets at the December 13th Bruins game."

They'll look for more sources of community funding that can help them out in subsequent years as well.

"We've approached the United Way for funding. We will be launching a local business campaign requesting donations for Challenge Day, we have a burger for a cause booked with the days in in January. There is also a free-will donation gentle yoga class at the ECS on November 30th," said McConnell, "All are welcome and it will be run by Kim Mayukh with all Yoga. So we're hoping to raise the funds to pay for this initiative and continue running it every year after."

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