Volunteerism can start at home: We Day speaker

Thousands of students will gather for WE Day at Rogers Place to salute each other’s volunteer work and try to inspire more with a lineup of celebrity speakers and performers Tuesday.

Among them will be Madison Pickett, speaking on stage about the charity efforts undertaken by her and a group of her fellow students at Rudolph Hennig Junior High School in Fort Saskatchewan.

“You don’t need to be a part of any organization or charity to do things to help other people. You can just go with other friends and do it yourself. It’s really that simple. Just go and do it,” Pickett said.

She said she’s nervous to speak in front of such a huge crowd, but excited and thrilled to hear from other students and speakers.

Every year, the group helps with the school’s food bank drive and chooses projects that are important to them, said Lori Nelson, a counsellor at Rudolph Hennig.

“They get told a lot that idea, that ‘I’m just a kid’ — but if you give them a way to see they can make a change, it can be super empowering,” said Nelson.

This year, that included a battery recycling program and the students are participating in Socktober, a month-long event that sees students buying and collecting as many socks as possible for the local Hearts for the Homeless project.

The group also supported a business development project in Tanzania through the WE organization, Nelson said.

“Helping people shouldn’t be lame or outlandish,” said fellow Rudolph Hennig student Kaelyn Cooper, who spoke on stage at last year’s event about the volunteer work ME to WE students have done at the school.

Cooper and Pickett are just two of 16,000 students from more than 350 schools and groups across Alberta assembling at WE Day. To get tickets, they made a commitment to do one local project and one global project throughout the year, Nelson said.

The WE Day event isn’t the be all and end all of their work, but a launching pad for doing more, Cooper and Pickett said.

“It is just like an add on, but it gives you that motivation that drives you for the entire year,” said Cooper.

You can just go with other friends and do it yourself. It’s really that simple. Just go and do it.

DAVID BLOOM/FILES Keshia Chante takes part in WE Day at Rogers Place in Edmonton last year. Fort Saskatchewan’s Madison Pickett will speak about the charity efforts undertaken by her and students of her school at this year’s edition on Tuesday. She says she is excited to hear from other students and speakers at the Edmonton event.