POSITIVE MESSAGE
Power in online kindness
Eleven-year-old Elizabeth Evon isn’t allowed to have her own Twitter or Facebook account, but she wants to better the world by asking those who do to be more kind on social media.
The first speech she’s ever written, on the power of the internet to spread love and kindness, has qualified her as a finalist in Speakers Idol, a speech competition run by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies. “If we all try to make a difference, it could be something as simple as sending someone a compliment online, sending a comment that they’re not alone. I feel like those little acts of kindness really build up into something powerful,” she said Wednesday.
The Sacred Heart Catholic elementary school Grade 6 student in LaSalle made the top five speakers for grades 6-8 in the contest and will compete March 27 in Toronto for the top prize, which, ironically, is a MacBook Air computer. There were 202 written entries from across Ontario this year for the seventh annual contest. There are 10 finalists because there is also a category for high school students. Evon said she was inspired by the quote from Holocaust survi- vor Simon Wiesenthal that says, “Freedom of speech is not freedom to propagate hatred.”
She saw a poster advertising the contest at school and started writing her first speech only days before the deadline.
“I’m just really excited,” she said of being a finalist and going to Toronto. “My speech is doing what I want it to, making a difference in this world. Sometimes it may not
My speech is doing what I want it to, making a difference in this world.
seem like it, but the world is getting so much better than it was, and it’s amazing how little kids can make such a big difference.”
The power of social media to help people not feel alone was shown in the #MeToo movement, she said. It was also evident after last month’s Florida school massacre of 17 students. Young people continue to use social media to plead for stricter gun control as students across the United States walked out of class Wednesday. Elizabeth’s mother, Carina Evon, said she had talked with her daughter about how a U.S. chain store stopped selling assault-style rifles and banned the sale of all guns to people under 21.
“She looked at me and said, ‘Isn’t that kind of dumb, that adults couldn’t get a store to change how they sell their guns, but these kids on social media were able to spread the news?’ ”
Carina realized she’s not giving young people enough credit. “Here we are, we have politicians and people trying to change the world through legislation, and I just thought, wow, 11-year-olds have it. Just change the world by being loving.” For now, the speech won’t change the family rules on waiting until Grade 11 to have a phone or social media accounts. Elizabeth understands that, and hopes to use the power of the internet for good. “I feel like everyone has the power to be kind, but not everyone is,” she said.