Canon-Mac hosts first ‘C-M Challenge’
Elizabeth Forward High School student mentor Tyler Trunzo, left, advises Aaron Beisler to take his time estimating the best block to pull from the oversized Giant Jenga set.
A mix of students from 11 school districts scatter as the giant “Earth Ball” stays aloft in the challenge circle.
Canon-McMillan student Brianna Hurley steps through a hula hoop in the “Hoop Pass” challenge.
CANONSBURG – Students from 11 school districts joined hands, danced and collaborated in various team tests in Canon-McMillan’s “C-M Challenge” Thursday as the district hosted special-needs students and their student mentors. Some challenges were variations on schoolyard games like “Don’t Step on the Lava,” renamed “Hot Chocolate River,” as students tossed discs they then had to step on to help themselves and teammates make a crossing.
The first-ever challenge event at the school is part of the “Schools Together with Athletes Reaching Success,” or the STARS program. Teacher-coordinator Sherree Mohler said she hopes it becomes an annual event.
“It’s all about teamwork, problem-solving, communication and socialization,” Mohler said.
A majority of the eight challenges also tasked students with using coordination and balance. One example was “Magic Carpet,” in which even students seated in wheelchairs participated by collectively flailing a tarp with two balls upward to keep the balls aloft. Other challenges were a mix of pre-planning and execution, like “Giant Jenga.”
“Take your time and think about your move. Make it count. You don’t want the tower to fall,” said student mentor Tyler Trunzo, 16, from Elizabeth Forward. He was speaking to 17-year-old Aaron Beisler, whom he was helping along the challenge circuit.
Beisler, leaning on his knees, squinted and pursed his lips to one side as he pondered the right move, eyeing all four sides of the 3-foot tower. He settled on a low-lying middle brick that he tested with a few finger pokes before pushing it out cleanly and placing it atop the (then) still-standing Jenga blocks. Trunzo patted him on the back in a show of pride after Beisler initially refused to participate. Beisler was persuaded to play after his and other mentors said they were confident in his ability.
Student mentors at Canon-Mac, like 16-year-old Ellie Pinto, got involved through the Society of Exceptional Citizens.
“This is my first year in SEC. I love it. These kids – I learn so much from them. And (Thursday was) an even bigger opportunity, because we’re working with kids from other schools. In SEC, you’re working with mostly the same students. With more districts involved in an event like this, you get to meet a lot more life-skills students, and it’s just very inspiring and grounding to see how they do the things they do,” said Pinto, a sophomore.
Mohler, in her fourth year as SEC adviser, said the push to annualize the C-M Challenge is to give more opportunities to special-needs students.
“I want them to have every opportunity to develop their own independence. And they do that through socialization, through being reassured and seeing their own abilities in action,” Mohler said.
Students from Avonworth, Baldwin-Whitehall, Belle Vernon, Canon-McMillan, Carlynton, Elizabeth Forward, Montour, South Allegheny, South Fayette, Sto-Rox and Washington school districts participated in the challenges.