By Sevak Stepanyan, Program Leader
Eight Friends, One Mission
There were eight of us: eight high schoolers from St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic Church, who grew up in the same church hall and the same Sunday school classrooms, serving side by side at the same Divine Liturgy every Sunday. We were friends long before the Healthy Heroes Challenge ever came along.
But being friends and making an impact together are two very different things. When One Thriving World and St. Mary's Shnorhali School asked us to help lead the Healthy Heroes Challenge, we set out to make a real difference for the youth of our community and for its future. Working toward a shared purpose brought us together in a way nothing ever had before.
The Challenge Begins
As we finished setting up, we watched the seats slowly fill with a crowd of St. Mary's Shnorhali School students, ages 6 to 13. The kids were split into teams, and each of us program leaders took charge of one. The program was a challenge not only for them but also for us. It was not easy to lead a team with such a mix of ages, personalities, and energy levels, from the youngest who could barely sit still to the oldest who wanted to prove they knew every answer.
What You Give Is What You Get Back
The biggest lesson I took away came early: kids reflect exactly what you bring to them. When I showed up with passion, cheering for my team and getting excited about every activity, they lit up right along with me.
That was when I saw my own impact clearly. It made me realize that leading by example is something you do every minute, whether you are standing in front of a team of 6- to 13-year-olds or letting your life speak for itself in the wider church community.
Little Heroes, Big Imaginations
One of the greatest joys of the whole experience was getting to help direct the creativity of these kids. Every child on my team had a different talent. Some were natural artists, some were quick thinkers, some were the loudest cheerleaders in the room. My job was to bring those talents together so they could complement each other and grow into real collaboration.
The Blooket rounds were bursting with energy. The kids were so excited that they could not keep the answers to themselves, shouting them out loud the second a question popped up on the screen. You could feel how badly they wanted to win, and how much they were learning without even realizing it.
Then came the art. When we asked them to draw the benefits of water as "superpowers," they came up with ideas I never would have imagined: water improving your skin, helping your brain think, keeping you strong. And when they built their own perfect healthy places, filled with healthy foods they had carefully cut out, every team created something completely unique. Watching the older kids help the younger ones with scissors and tape, while the younger ones brought wild ideas the older ones would never have thought of, was teamwork at its best.
Someday Is Now
Leading the Healthy Heroes Challenge was an opportunity to give back to the community that raised me. For years, the adults of St. Mary's have poured their time and love into kids like me, and I always assumed my turn to lead would come someday.
This program showed me that someday is now. Leadership isn't a title you wait for. It's a choice you make every time you show up with energy, patience, and purpose, because someone younger is always watching and reflecting it back.
Eight friends were asked to be part of this program. We finished it as one team, with a room full of Healthy Heroes cheering beside us and a new understanding of our responsibility. The future of our community isn't something we're waiting to inherit. It's something we're already building.
