HORRAY FOR WE DAY!

Over 18,000 youth from across Canada and even the U.S attended the 2011 WE DAY! I was so privileged to cover this memorable movement. We Day is a HUGE event hosted by children’s organization Free The Children. This year the aim was to focus on the drought that happened in East Africa. Founder Craig Kielburger, who started the organization in 1995 had the support of his brother Marc and Degrassi Veteran Nina Dobrev, singer Joe Jonas and Much Music VJ Jesse Giddings. Other guest hosts included current Degrassi Stars Munro Chambers and Aislinn Paul. Performances included rapper Kardinall Offishall who perform his ode to T.O with his song, 'The Anthem'. Shawn Desman taught everyone the ME TO WE dance and songstress Nelly Furtado was there not only to perform her hit song ‘Powerless’ but to also share her experience with Free The Children on her trip to Kenya and also to make a special announcement, which you will find out below. Other exciting performers included; City and Colour, Classified, Neverest and Nikki Yanofsky. Movie star Danny Glover even came to give a speech and show support. There were other empowering guests including child soldier Michel Chikwanine who had everyone in a moment of silence as he revealed his story through story boards. Another moving motivational speaker was Spencer West, who lost his legs at the age of 5. I ran into Spencer at the Free the Children store downtown and he is super nice. Spencer shares his story to other and how his trip in building a school in Kenya continued to help him overcome his challenges and be a motivator for children in need and for communities to get involved to make positive changes. Nelly Furtado also made a surprise announcement and that was that she donated $1 million to Free The Children. The donation will fund two new Free The Children programs supporting girls. Nelly was also surprised by a girl named Susan who she was touched by in Kenya. Nelly said that she loved being with the girls in Kenya and they even sang along to her songs she taught them. An emotional Nelly stated that ‘She believes in children and she believes in empowering girls.” This was the biggest We Day and it was a remarkable day!