Wow! I cannot believe that Spencer West, Neverest, the staff and I have been on the road for only a short while, in that amount of days, we have travelled through 4 provinces already! I have had so much fun through this week and I am so humbled to have be on this epic road trip with Paul, Spee and Greg from Neverest and of course, Spencer West, to honour students who are making big differences in their communities and in the world.
Now that I have a few moments of sightseeing and exploring and blogging, here are some of my awesome moments in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec.
When we were in Newfoundland for the launch of the We Create Change Tour, one of the things that my mom and I really liked about Newfoundland were the houses. They were all different colours – green, red, blue, yellow, turquoise and lots more colours that I don’t often see for houses.
There is a beautiful place in Newfoundland where you can overlook the city of St. Johns and get an amazing view – it is called “Signal Hill.” It is called Signal Hill because the military was protecting the city from the top of the hill. The military could be able to send signals from this hill to let the people know that someone dangerous was coming. It was the first time place that a wireless telegraph from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean was sent.
The exploring did not stop there. I went to see a monument of one of the greatest Canadian heroes – Terry Fox. He has shown me, like Spencer West, that the impossible IS possible. Terry Fox’s “Marathon Of Hope” raised $24.17 million dollars for Cancer Research by running at least 26 miles a day across Canada. He “redefined his possible” and through his fundraising efforts became a hero to Canadians and people all around the world. Terry Fox started his journey in Newfoundland, where dipped his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean and set out to run across Canada. I took a picture with his statue there and I imagined him in 1981 starting his journey and how big his passion was to bring awareness to the need for Cancer Research. It was such a historic time. When the We Create Change Tour arrives at Thunder Bay, I will be able to learn even more about Terry Fox and be able to see where he ended his Marathon Of Hope. Sadly, he had to stop in Thunder Bay because his cancer came back and he had to go to the hospital. Today, we do not think of Terry Fox as someone who couldn’t complete his journey, we think about the man who had the courage to start and inspired millions of people.
One last piece of trivia about Newfoundland. St. John’s is the oldest city in North America. Quite a cool place to start our tour, don’t you think?
After Newfoundland, by plane, we traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia. We had a great show at Barrington Municipal High School. It was the first event where the actresses from Degrassi, Aislinn and Ana, joined us. Pretty cool. There are 8 stops on our tour where cast members from Degrassi are coming because a class at that school won this special experience. RBC and Free The Children created curriculum called “It All Adds Up” to teach about financial literacy. “It All Adds Up” teaches us about money and how to earn, save, give and spend. I’m working my way through the curriculum with my teacher on the road and I will be sharing what I am learning in an upcoming post.
In Halifax there was a special reception to celebrate the first ever We Day in Atlantic Canada this past year. All of the We Create Change Tour staff was also there to celebrate the beginning of our tour in Halifax and it seemed like everybody there was ready for students to be impacted to build a school and to celebrate the change that they have made in their community. I can’t wait for next year’s We Day Atlantic Canada, and I know so many other kids that I met will be there, too.
I think that the best part about Halifax on the We Create Change Tour was because that was the first time the team saw our tour bus. To get to the bus, Spencer drove Neverest and I in Spencer’s new car from Ford! Spencer had been given a car so that he could drive across Canada. There are special hand controls for him to use the break and gas pedals. When all of us met the tour bus we would be hanging out in (not sleeping in) for 10 weeks, we were so happy with it. The inside is so comfy, has lots of space, a kitchen, outlets to charge our devices and screens to watch movies! Oh, it has wifi too! The outside of the bus is covered with a special wrap that looks like bricks. On one side it has a photo Spencer, Neverest and I. You can’t miss us!
While we are on the bus, we have been recording really funny videos and pictures
when we have time to spare. I thought that I should share the links.
The energy in New Brunswick was truly the power of WE. You could tell in the auditorium that all the kids wanted to make a difference and that they were already making big impacts in their community. I think that there we realized why we were there and we were there to celebrate the positive impact that they have completed in our world. I also had the wonderful chance to meet a class of grade 6’s and I learned lots about their involvement with Free The Children and the clubs that they have at their school. With the tour team, we celebrated Free The Children’s 19th birthday! On April 19th, 1995, Craig Kielburger and 11 other friends founded Free The Children, now the world’s largest non-profit organization of children helping children in the world. Wow!
Quebec city is so beautiful! Our team got the chance to have a long weekend off after a long week of hard work. Some people got to go home to visit their family for the weekend, some went exploring and sightseeing, like my parents and I did around the city where we got to go to Old Quebec City and other staff got to finally slept more than a few hours without any meetings. While on the long weekend, we all got to recharge, rest, get ready for the next events and work on their job. I thought about the advice from kids just like me on fundraising ideas and how I can get my school even more involved with Free The Children and We Create Change.
Our next stop was Quebec and we spent the long weekend in Quebec City. Here are some pictures of the team spending time together and photos of Old Quebec City:
We are having such a great time. I am so inspired by all of the students that I am meeting and I love seeing and hearing about all of the impacts that they are making in their communities and around the world. The We Create Change Tour is all about celebrating what Canadian students are doing to be the change and it is motivating me in so many ways. I am keeping a list of cool things that I am learning about and can’t wait to share some personal stories soon.
I quickly want to thank the awesome team that will be travelling with Spencer, Neverest and I on this journey. What I really like about them is that they are so kind, really easy to talk to and we always have fun and joke around. There are so many people working behind the scenes that the kids and teaches don’t get to meet, but they are the people that really make the show happen – the production, writing the speeches, setting up and taking everything down again. They are also amazing at making sure that not only the talent have everything they need, but especially that the kids have a really good time while they are there.
It has taken me a lot longer than I thought to get this post ready to share with you. We have been so busy on our tour preparing for our shows and I’ve also been keeping busy with my studies. I have a teacher with me on the road who is working hard with me to make sure that I am keeping up with my school work while we’re on tour. Her name is Jamie and she is awesome. I’ll write more about how I’m doing school on the road in another post soon. I promise.
There is only one more thing that I need to say… see you on the road!
alicia gaudet says
hi, hanna I didn’t think you even saw me. But when u went to Barrington Municipal High school. I was there but I couldn’t see you so well. but oh well please email me at Alicia-6@live.ca because I want you to give me advice, tips and many more for my blog!!! thank you
Kirra says
Hey!!!
Thank u so much for coming to westgate yesterday day i had so much fun being inspired and listening to neverest’s music (tell them i said a big hello and thanks) also spencer really inspired me as well having no legs and doing all this fundraising for children who are less fortunate. (Tell him i said a big hello and thanks as well.) and you at only 11 years old fundraising WOW im amazed one person can change the world right!! Well im goin to be gettin my school to fundraiser and bring the $$$ to RBC because i feel a bit guilty that im not doing anything about this. So thank you guys for doing this fundraiser and have a great,safe and fun tour/trip
From: Kirra
P.s God bless