WE DAY IS NOT A ME DAY
TEENS EXPLAIN HOW THE PROGRAM WE ACT GRABBED THEM AND DIDN’T LET GO
Thousands of young people will fill a Gatineau arena with their idealism and their energy soon. Why is this happening? We explain.
Across Canada, thousands of students hold penny drives and bake sales.
They observe vows of silence, they “adopt” villages in Africa, march to the nearest river to scoop up jugs of undrinkable water so they get an inkling of what clean water means to people in other parts of the world.
These are the kinds of actions that can get your ticket to We Day.
This year, it’s estimated about 160,000 students will attend these stadium-sized rallies in 11 cities across North America. We Day features inspirational speeches by the likes of actor Martin Sheen, Chief Shawn Atleo of the Assembly of First Nations, appearances by the cast members of Degrassi and performances by the poprock band Neverest, among others.
National We Day, to be held April 29 in the Robert Guertin Arena, will be the region’s first, with an estimated 4,000 students from 130 schools from as far away as the Maritimes attending.
“We Day is such a spiritually uplifting event. We’re dancing. We’re singing. It’s a celebration,” says Andrew DiCapua, a Grade 12 student at St. Patrick High School who went to We Day last year in Montreal and will be attending We Day in Gatineau.
“We Day is the highlight of my year. It keeps you motivated for the next year.”
DiCapua says his school puts a strong priority on getting involved beyond the 40 hours of volunteering mandated for high school students by the province. It opens students to the idea that they can all be leaders — and there are thousands of other like-minded young people out there.
“It’s impossible to do things by yourself,” he says. “There are people out there who share the same ideas.”
The Ottawa Catholic School Board has 600 students from 40 schools attending We Day, says human resources superintendent Tom D’Amico. While small groups of students have travelled to Montreal and Toronto for We Day in the past, this is the first time the board has had large-scale participation.
“A big message that comes out of that energized environment is that it’s cool to care. The kids leave feeling the energy of other kids like them,” says D’Amico, who attended We Day in Montreal because he was curious about the phenomena.
“It really is a celebration of youth and the power of their voice.”
At Hillcrest High School, a group called IMPACT has raised money to build a school in Ecuador through fundraisers like Fast For Freedom and Walk For Water, which attracted about 200 students — about one-third of the school population. IMPACT is now only $1,000 away from its goal of raising $8,500 to build the school, says Grade 12 student Caitlin Salvino.
About two years ago, Salvino and her friend Taylor Galloway started a club called Lunch Buddies, which paired up the school’s special needs students with volunteers.
The Group now has 40 student volunteers who meet their counterparts twice a week for a trip to the gym, the music room or a walk outdoors.
“It has broken down barriers. We saw that a lot of special needs kids were ostracized at school,” says Salvino, who will be studying human rights and global politics at Carleton University next year, but will make time to make sure the club is sustainable.
Alaine Spiwak, a 19-year-old University of Ottawa student got involved in Motivators, a network of student fundraisers in her hometown of Hamilton, after she attended We Day as a 16-year-old. Craig Kielburger and his brother Marc spoke and she was mesmerized by their passion.
She has been to six We Days and will be working as a volunteer “crowd pumper” in Gatineau on April 29.
“We pump up the crowd and make sure the energy is high,” says Spiwak, who will be patrolling the aisles dressed in vibrant colours and exhorting the crowd to join in.
“The energy fills you up and make it impossible not to go home and take action,” says Spiwak, who is studying global development and has travelled to Ecuador with a Me to We volunteer project, and will be going to Kenya this summer.
“It was the jumpstart to everything else I ended up doing,” she says.
“I can’t imagine my life without it anymore. It really changed who I am.”