We Day Seattle
byWe Day returns to Seattle for the second time on Friday, March 21, 2014, complimenting its hugely successful live events in major Canadian cities over the years. We Day is all about empowering and encouraging today’s youth, sending out the positive message that they can be the change they wish to see in the world as they live “Me to We” everyday.
You can’t buy a ticket to We Day — you earn it through service. Through the year-long We Act program, schools and groups take on one local and one global action and report back to Free The Children to earn their way to We Day. Since 2007, youth involved in We Act have raised more than $37 million for 1,000 local and global causes and have volunteered 9.6 million hours.
“We no longer fight our fight with our fists, we fight our fight with education.”
– National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo, We Day Vancouver 2013
Tens of thousands of youth from hundreds of schools pack an arena for We Day and their enthusiasm and spirit gives you chills from the start of the show right through to the end. Students enjoy a remarkable lineup of speakers and entertainers, while learning more about Free The Children and We Day’s campaigns throughout the year.
In Vancouver we’ve hosted internationally known celebrities and everyday heroes, people who are passionate, creative, and willing to use their voice — or whatever they can — to make an impact. From the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King III, Mia Farrow, Sarah McLachlan, Al Gore, Demi Lovato, Dr Jane Goodall, to Hannah Alper, Spencer West, Molly Burke and more, many have shared their message with We Day audiences.
At today’s media event (left) Lori Forte Harnick, general manager of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Mi & (right) YouthSpark students Natasha Babayan and Cynthia Tran with We Day co-founder Marc Kielburger.
We Day Seattle
This morning We Day’s co-founder Marc Kielburger spoke to local Seattle media about what We Day is bringing to their city. “Any young person can change the world,” he told reporters as he explained a formula her learned at a young age: “Give + Issue = Change”. Every young person is gifted, every young person has an issue they care about. We Day is about encouraging young people to get inspired, get engaged, and simply get involved.
“We never thought in a million years that we would reach the scope and scale that we have now,” Marc added, thinking back almost 20 years to when he and his brother founded this entire movement. “As exciting as all that is, it’s really about the educational opportunity and the educational experience what goes on the other 364 days now in the schools, that’s what we dreamt of.”
We Day Seattle Facts
- 15,000 students and teachers from 450 schools across Washington State
- We Day Seattle Co-Chairs are Seahawks’ Coach Pete Carroll, and Connie Ballmer of Ballmer Family Group
- Guests include (but are not limited to) Ed Norton, Joe Jonas, Russell Wilson and several Seattle Seahawks, Martin Luther King III, Flo Rida, Cody Simpson
- More than 400 schools are currently active in the year-long educational program, We Act
- We Day Seattle will be streamed live on March 21, 2014 at 9:15am via Q13 Fox.
Get Involved with We Acts
We Day is an initiative of Free The Children, an international charity and educational partner co-founded by Craig and Marc Kielburger, with a 19-year history of youth engagement. It currently hosts events in Canada, the UK, and the United States. Once they wrap up in Seattle they will be taking We Day on the road to California.
The We Act program supports students and teachers with free educational resources, student-led campaigns, and support materials to help turn the inspiration from We Day into sustained activation. Follow We Day on Facebook and Twitter to learn more and check out the We Day app for students.
I’ve been attending We Day since it first came to Vancouver in 2009 and I’ve even followed up to do a talk with local elementary school students about how their class blog can help make a difference at their school. Free The Children invited me down to Seattle to cover We Day here and I was able to bring my niece along, as she’s covered the last few We Days with me in Vancouver at Rogers Arena. I will have additional coverage, quotes, tweets, and photos posted tomorrow as We Day Seattle goes live.
