We Day Waterloo: My Top 5 Moments

I just went to my first We Day! It was awesome. My We Day experience started on Monday night when my parents and I checked into the hotel in Kitchener. We went early because I was invited to go to see some of the rehearsals and do some interviews with some people I really admire including Craig Kielburger and Spencer West. So many amazing things happened over the two nights and two days that we were there to participate in We Day. It was really hard to choose 5 things to tell you about, but if I told you everything I would be writing and you would be reading for days!

So, here are my Top 5 Favourite Things and Moments about We Day Waterloo Region 2012:

1. My one-on-one time with Craig Kielburger

Craig Kielburger is the founder of Free The Children and together with his brother Marc, he is the co-host and inspiration of We Day. He inspired me to “be the change”. I got a chance to sit down and talk with Craig. We thought that we had only 5 minutes  with him but he talked with me for 20 minutes! I asked Craig many questions, but I think this one was my favourite. “You’ve met many leaders and change-makers including The Dalai Lama, Oprah and Al Gore ~ what do they all have in common?” I loved his answer. He started by saying that my question  sounded like a knock-knock joke. Then he continued to give his real answer: each of them holds passionately to their beliefs. Al Gore has been at We Day to talk about the environment and climate change. The Dalai Lama speaks passionately about peace and he believes that you need to find inner-peace to create peace around the world.  And Oprah, is passionate about service – when she was young someone helped her and that really changed her life a a young person and now she wants to pay it forward. I’m going to tell you one more thing that Craig told me, that might surprise you. He laughed when I asked him what was on his iPod and told me that he doesn’t have one. He uses an app that reads the newspaper and books to him. He said that I was different than the other people who have interviewed him. He was so kind to me, his speech at We Day was amazing! He is such an amazing and inspiring man.

2. My one-on-one time with Spencer West.

I am a big admirer of Spencer West and was so happy to meet him and have the chance to sit down and talk with him. Twice! I met Spencer and his friends at the restaurant at the hotel on Monday night. It was so nice to have a chance to say hello before our BIG interview.  Since Spencer is one of my heroes, I wanted to know who his heroes were. He told me that his first heroes were his Mom and Dad. He said “they raised me never to look at myself as different and also to focus on the things that I can do and not the things that I can’t do.” He also said that students like me inspire him now. The ones that work so hard every day to bring the world a message of hope and bring the world the idea that we are not powerless to make change. That no matter how old we are or we come from, we all can make a difference. I also want to tell you that other than Craig and Marc, Spencer got the biggest and loudest cheers when he got on the stage at We Day. He has shown me that no matter how young you are you can redefine your possible! He inspires me so much and he is a role model for me!

3. Attending the We Day Press Conference and asking The President a question.

I was invited to the Press Conference at We Day! Craig talked about the Free The Children’s Water Initiative (more information at www.freethechildren.com/water). I was excited to hear him talk about it because I launched it at my school last week. I was invited to ask a question to the panel and I had one that was for Martin Sheen aka. The President. Martin Sheen is an activist and actor. He was The President of the United States in a TV show called The West Wing. Even Craig called him “Mr. President”.  I asked him if he ever wanted to be the real President, he said “in a word “no” next question!” My 2nd question to him was “can you make a bigger difference as a politician or as an activist? He said he would rather be an  activist and that people who have made the most important changes are not politicians. Martin Luther KIng Jr. who founded the Civil Right Movement and a brought a great measure of freedom was not a politician. He made great change in the world, he never ran for public office. Another example on the world stage was, Gandhi made a change in the world who freed a nation without without firing a shot. He was not a politician. He asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up. I told him that I wanted to be an activist. He said “good choice”.  Throughout the press conference he kept mentioning me, I even got a picture with him! He’s really nice!

4. Just being at We Day.

Being at the stadium was awesome! I was so happy to know that 6,000 other young people in the stadium are being the change, just like me! You can’t buy a ticket to We Day, you earn it by service. I loved hearing the speakers talking about their story and how they made a difference in the world!

5. The Free The Children and We Day Team

The staff were so nice! Tamara who invited me to We Day and organized my interviews and the press conference was so nice, she even interviewed me! Laura, who works directly with Craig and Marc was also very kind and made me feel so welcome! Everywhere I went people were saying “Hi Hannah!” I knew everybody! It felt like camp! There were 3 guys that were so especially awesome to me:  David, Cameron and Alex. I talked to Cameron a lot about his 4 year trip to Kenya! I also talked to Alex, who is the Director of Leadership for Me To We and also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with Spencer! I talked to Dave a lot about climbing Mount Kilamagaro with Spencer too. (If you want to read about Spencer’s Mount Kilimanjaro climb with his best friends David and Alex, their entire journey is here with some video and photos too.) The staff at Free The Children and We Day are so welcoming, amazing, inspiring and kind! They all really are all about “being the change”.