Since 2007, youth from around the world have been participating in the phenomenon that is known as ‘We Day’. We Day is an annual “youth empowerment” event organized by Free the Children that features speeches and performances by global leaders, social activists and public figures. The event is free of charge, but each student group that attends is asked to make a commitment of one local and one global action throughout the year to change the world for the better.
Their reach goes well beyond these yearly events as they have one of the largest non-profit Facebook pages in the world, with over 3.5 million likes. The associated “1 like = 1 dollar” fundraising campaign, where the event’s sponsors donated one dollar for each like on the We Day page, raised over $2 million for Free The Children. A powerful group inspiring the youth of today to do amazing things!
On October 27th, 2015, We Day hit the Saddledome in Calgary where over 17,000 Alberta youth packed the arena to be a part of the event. Among those were 24 students, and 3 teachers from Chestermere Lake Middle School this year – the largest group the Chestermere school has ever sent to We Day. The students were all from Mr. Jon Goldie’s grade 8 and 9 leadership class. Goldie says, “Leadership students gained a greater understanding of the ‘Me to We’ foundation, where the money goes to and what actions they can take to fund raise. They were inspired by the presenters and videos to ‘be the change’ in order to start creating a world without bullying, hunger, poverty, etc. They got many great ideas of events to create in the school and community”.
Speakers included Oscar winner Marlee Matlin, Olympic triple medal winner Silken Laumann, Grammy Award-winning country singers The Band Perry, Giller Prize (and Canada Reads) winning novelist Joseph Boyden, We Day co-founder Craig Kielburger, and Henry Winkle along with many others. Goldie commented, “The students really enjoyed hearing Henry Winkler (the Fonz!), and ‘The Band Perry’ was a huge hit with their two songs as well. Silken Laumann told her courageous story, and of course, the founder, Craig Kielburger inspired us all to do more for those around us”.
650 schools from across Alberta participated in We Day events this past year, inspiring students from Grande Prairie, Edmonton, and Red Deer to join the large Calgary contingent in the Saddledome Tuesday and take what they’ve learned into their communities and schools.
In past years, the students of CLMS that have attended We Day have taken what they have heard and been moved to do amazing things. Their ever proud teacher commented, “We have many projects coming up this year at CLMS, working on our three goals of building school culture, giving back to the community, and global fundraising. We are still discussing exactly what pillar and which country our fundraising will go towards this year, but we are hoping to raise over $10 000 for our cause. We are in the midst of a bake sale and a food bank drive right now. Our two main fundraisers for the year will be the 4th Annual ‘Great Chestermere Coin Race’ in January, and a 24 hour ‘Awake-a-thon’ later this spring”.
Since its creation in 2007, We Day has raised over $45 million for more than 1,000 local and global charities and has collected 5.6 million pounds of food for local food banks. If that isn’t inspiring, I don’t know what is!
