EFC 21st Annual Challenge : Dance-A-Thon
💃🕺 Join us Sat. May 24 for the Ever Forward Dance-A-Thon! Dance 10 mins or all day—every move supports this year’s Young Men’s Conference. Your energy + pledges uplift youth. 🎶 Show up, move your body, and make a difference. Let’s grow stronger together!
$5,446Raised of $70,000
🚀 Our Mission:
💡 Empowering youth. Transforming lives.
We believe every young person deserves the chance to thrive, grow, and be heard. Our mission is to support at-risk teens to achieve their goals, both inside and outside the classroom, with signature self-reflection tools (www.millionmask.org) and community building that fosters peer-to-peer support and deep connection.
🎭 Explore the movement at: www.millionmask.org
🌎 Discover our programs at: www.everforwardclub.org
Our Journey of Challenge and Connection
In 2004, when the Ever Forward Club was started at San Lorenzo High School I was trying to encourage young men to do community service and it was clear to me that they had limited understanding of what community service looked like.
They thought community service looked like cleaning up the streets or a beach while wearing a bright vest. 👷🏽♂️🦺
So I reached into my bag of future plans and realized that the 24 Hour Relay Challenge was needed now.
So we began planning the 1st Annual 24 Hour Relay Challenge to happen May 2005 at San Lorenzo High School. And 50 couragous students signed up to walk or run for 24 Hours on a dusty track while camping on an old football fiend on a team of 10.
✅ 2005 – 1st Annual 24 Challenge Relay (San Lorenzo HS)
✅ 2006 – 2nd Annual 24 Challenge Relay (San Lorenzo HS
✅ 2008 – 4th Annual 24 Challenge Relay (San Lorenzo HS)
✅ 2009 – 5th Annual 24 Challenge Relay (San Lorenzo HS)
✅ 2010 – 6th Annual 24 Challenge Relay (Cal State East Bay)
✅ 2011 – 7th Annual 24 Challenge Relay (Cal State East Bay)
✅ 2012 – 8th Annual 24 Challenge Relay (Cal State East Bay)
✅ 2013 – 9th Annual 24 Challenge Relay (Cal State East Bay)
✅ 2014 – 10th Annual 24 Challenge Relay (Oakland Tech)
✅ 2015 – 11th Annual 24 Challenge Relay (Oakland Tech)
✅ 2016 – 12th Annual 24 Challenge Relay (Oakland Tech)
✅ 2017 – 13th Annual 24 Challenge Relay (Oakland Tech)
✅ 2018 – 14th Annual 24 Challenge Relay (Oakland Tech)
✅ 2019 – 15th Annual 24 Challenge Relay (Oakland Tech)
Early 2020 we began to plan for the 16th Annual 24 Hour Relay Challenge and the COVID-19 pandemic changed all of our plans. We made a pivot to engage people around the Bay Area and around the world in completing 24 Challenges in 24 Hours. It was an amazing experience and that Pivot would lead to a series of other event changes to keep the youth at the forefront of these events.
These annual community challenges have two purposes, first to bring youth and adults together to create stronger communities and secondly, to raise funds to support our youth-facing work.
In 2024 we had a very low youth registration even though we were planning for our biggest and funniest event in years.
✅ 2020 – 16th Annual: 24 Challenge Relay
✅ 2021 – 17th Annual: 24 Challenges + 5K Walk/Run (LIVESTREAM)
✅ 2022 – 18th Annual Community Challenge: 5K Challenge
✅ 2023 – 19th Annual Community Challenge: 5K Challenge
✅ 2024 – 20th Annual Community Challenge: 5k Walk/Run - Oakland High School
Playlist of all 20 Community Challenge Videos
So as we complete 21 years of doing this work, the Dance-a-Thon was envisioned by youth during our Social Emotional Leadership Academy and the most recent Young Men’s Conference as an event to engage even more youth and the entire community for Fun, Food, Friends, and creating amazing memories to keep us all moving Ever Forward.
🎉 2025 – 21st Annual Community Challenge: Dance-A-Thon Costume Party (Jack London Square, Oakland, CA)
But this movement isn’t just about one event—it’s about all of us taking action to create spaces where young people feel seen, heard, and supported. You can be part of this work. Whether you choose to dance, donate, or volunteer, your support makes a difference.
Let’s dance and keep moving forward, together.
With gratitude,
Ashanti Branch & The EFC Team