The Challenge Creates Change

The true impact of Mariah's Challenge will not be seen this year or next year. True change takes time. If we are challenging our children and ourselves to step back from drinking as an activity in and of itself, then what will we offer to fill that space? Academics and sports are both important alternatives. Community service can give a sense of civic pride. Arts and crafts — music, painting, writing, dance, woodworking, stained glass, and so much more — will allow them to express themselves in new ways that allows them to develop discipline and focus along with self–expression. Mariah was an artist and writer.

The Challenge that Leo McCarthy offered to the people of Butte is the opportunity for a second chance — a second chance that his daughter, Mariah, will never have.  Leo acknowledges that it would have been easy, perhaps easier, to have been vindictive and to light a torch that, instead of bringing hope and healing, would have caused a conflagration and burnt things down.  Mariah's Challenge offers the opportunity for a sense of community in the connection of wanting to be different from what's gone before.  The essence of Mariah's Challenge is a sense of power — for the kids, for the parents — for all the families who were impacted by Mariah's death.