We Day, a Free The Children initiative, is coming to Vancouver September 29th at GM Place. This event for young people and school-aged children brings together professional speakers activists and entertainers who share their stories to inspire and motivate young people. “We Day is an annual celebration of the power of young people to change the world,” — “a rock concert for social change.”
Free The Children programs include engaging youth through outreach initiatives such as this, across North America. The organization runs a type of Adopt a Village program, helping families and communities break out of their poverty cycle. They currently run programs in six countries, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, India , China and Ecuador.
Since 1995, Free The Children…
has built more than 500 schools around the world
provides education for 50,000 children everyday
has received the World Children’s Prize for the Right of the Child (also known as the Children’s Nobel Prize)
has received the Human Rights Award from the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations
has formed successful partnerships with leading school boards and Oprah’s Angel Network
Schools across the Lower Mainland have been allocated spots for this event which will pack GM Place at the end of the month. For more information they can download the Schools Logistics Package, email wedayvancouver [at] freethechildren.com, check out Free the Children on Facebook, or follow co-founder Craig Kielburger on Twitter.
Even if your class cannot attend you can still check out the “We Generation” initiatives online and CTV will have a live streaming broadcast on the day of the event.
A dozen venues including the Media Club, Lafflines, The Cultch, and the Orpheum will host multiple events throughout the course of the ten-day festival. Some of the other 80 performers include Pauly Shore, Last Comic Standing competitors John Heffron and Jon Reep, Flight of the Conchords‘ Arj Barker, and Canada’s king of duct tape, Red Green.
Tickets for some of these shows start at only $15, which is an amazing deal. They also have a 2 for 1 deal to see Tom Arnold and Red Green’s shows when you enter the promo code from the festival’s website.
I’ve only recently experienced Vancouver’s thriving local comedy scene for myself (thanks to Patrick and Art) so I’m sure an event like this will do nothing but good things to boost the community’s profile.
The Vancouver Canucks to host an official Tweetup on Thursday, all are welcome to come out to watch the game and cheer on the team.
During the NHL season the term “Canucks” usually becomes one of the top ten trending topics on Twitter while other teams across the league have yet to achieve this social media popularity.
To show their appreciation and to further engage fans, the Vancouver Canucks will be hosting a series of Tweetups throughout the 2009-2010 season. The first of which will take place this Thursday, September 17th at the Hurricane Grill in Yaletown.
The event has been added to the Vancouver Tweetup website if you would like to RSVP. The team will offer up some fabulous prizes ranging from signed merchandise to pre-season game tickets, and gift certificates for the Tweetup host venues.
Last year as a member of the Canucks Fan Zone I participated in liveblogs and promotion of the team’s social media initiatives. This year the Fan Zone group is back and we’ll be helping the franchise coordinate events like these as well as create online content and other fun campaigns.
Fan Zone members include Richard Loat (@Mozy19), JJ Guerrero (@canuckshockey), Brian Wawryshyn (@canuckscorner), Alex (@hgiraffe), John Bollwitt (@JohnBollwitt), Mike (@nucksmisconduct), Dave (@Uncleweed), and yours truly. You can follow any Fan Zone member, or @VanCanucks (the official account of the Canucks) on Twitter for news, game information, and updates throughout the season.
This year’s line up is thoroughly impressive as 70 countries will be represented. VIFF got me hooked on documentaries last year and also re-kindled my love of Canadian film. This year 89 Canadian films will be showcased including a documentary by Pete McCormack called Facing Ali and the latest from Carl Bessai, Cole.
The full program is now available online along with Festival Pass information. Tickets can be purchased starting September 19th.
I’ll have more updates and film reviews over the next few weeks but in the meantime you can check out @VIFFVIFC on Twitter for updates from the festival.
Please click through and visit the Flickr collections from each photographer as they each have much more to offer. Also, as I only usually feature Creative Commons licensed photos, if you would like to get on my radar feel free to add your photos to the Miss604 Flickr Group.
