What You Didn’t See At We Day Toronto (But I Did)

I just got back from We Day Toronto and I had such a fun time! I had a really exciting journey with my friend and stage partner Vishal, the We Day crew and all of the speakers and performers.

I want to share some of my behind-the-scenes experiences with We Day Toronto. In addition to speaking on the We Day stage on Friday, I also spoke at 3 very special We Day events.

The first event that I spoke at was a Cocktail Party hosted by TELUS the night before We Day. TELUS has been a long-time supporter of Free The Children and We Day. This year is extra exciting because they have partnered with We Day to create We365, a social platform where the power of WE can live 365 days a year online. You can take amazing challenges, you can even track how you get involved and your volunteering. You can also connect with your friends so you can take action together! Telus has a motto that I really like – Give Where You Live. I met amazing people like Jill Schnarr, the Vice President of Community Affairs for TELUS. She helped make We365 with We Day happen. You’ll be hearing a lot more about We365 soon – it launches October 18th at We Day in Vancouver. At the cocktail party I spoke about the things we take for granted, how lucky we are to live in Canada, my journey with my blog, taking action and We Day. A big part of my speech was thanking the companies and people who support Free The Children all year.

Thank you for believing in and giving opportunity to young people like me to shape our country and our world. I want to reassure you all that while there is still much to do, we are ready to act.

The next morning was the Educational Partners Breakfast and I was so happy that my teacher, Mrs. Knight and my Principals, Mrs. Smith and Mrs Fraser were there. Educators make everything possible with Free The Children, Me to We and We Day. Educators have taught about issues that have made youth take action. They have given students the opportunity to launch campaigns at their school and encourage and empower them to be the change through We Act. All of this leads up to We Day, the youth and the teachers have earned their way to We Day through actions locally and globally. I thanked Educators who do so much for us every single day – for helping with lunch and after school, for being someone we can talk to, for making learning fun, for all the field trips, for supervising extra curricular activities and making our classroom and school a safe place and for so so so much more. If Craig Kielburger’s teacher didn’t allow him to share the story of Iqbal Masih with his class, Free The Children might never have existed. At We Day Craig and Marc said “On the count of 3 stand up and shout the name of the teacher inspired you to discover or follow your passion.” Everyone was on their feet.

When school is a place where we can learn and discover who we are and who we can be, change happens. When we learn about the world we begin to understand our place in it.

After I spoke at We Day we headed over to a special celebration dinner hosted by RBC. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female head of state in Africa and President of Liberia gave a very heartfelt speech about her country, her life and so much more. The Kenyan Boys Choir sang while leading us to where we would all eat dinner, later in the evening The Tenors performed and The Barenaked Ladies also sang! It felt amazing to speak in front of all those people, who have supported, donated and encouraged Free The Children and We Day. It was a special celebration after the fist We Day of the season and everyone felt so good. I added a surprise ending to my speech and I congratulated Marc and Craig on being inducted into Canada’s Walk Of Fame, which was the next day.

On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of students that you have inspired, empowered and motivated to be the change, thank you and congratulations. On behalf of the communities that you have made stronger, healthier and more educated, thank you and as they say in Kenya, Asante Sana. On behalf of all of us here tonight, Marc and Craig, the world is a better place because of you.

Overall, I had an awesome few days at We Day Toronto! All 4 speeches were an amazing experience. The speech that really stood out to me was of course the We Day speech. I was so honoured to share Malala’s story. When Vishal and I got up on stage to speak I could really feel the energy of 20,000 youth and their want for change. They are the power of we! It felt so good to say the last line of my speech on the We Day stage:

We Day! Our voices are being heard, our stories are being told! We are the agents of change in our generation!

I would like to thank Craig and Marc for giving me this amazing opportunity and making it become a reality. They have helped me with my speeches, gave me really great advice and showed me that they believe in me. Kim has been my mentor at Free The Children and helped me prepare and rehearse all of my speeches – I am so lucky to call her my friend. I want to thank We Day Producers Lena, Karen and Jill who were with me every step of the way. They were so encouraging and they have worked hard for so long to make We Day happen. I also have to thank The Canadian Sinsonietta Youth Orchestra for their performance of “Don’t You Worry Child” to accompany our speech. I’m so happy that my new friend from Free The Children, Thara, was with me for the few days at the ACC – she kept me organized and on time for everything that I had to do. She even helped to arrange for me to meet Demi Lovato! Thank you also to Spencer West and Molly Burke for supporting me and being such good friends! Three more people that have been awesome to me are Alex, David and Cameron – I met them at We Day last year and I thank them for being so fun and for cheering me on.

And last, but not least, a very big thank you to my friend and partner, Vishal Vijay, Vishal and I met at Take Action Camp this summer and became good friends. We had no idea that we would sharing the We Day stage together. I feel so comfortable with him – which is really important when you’re speaking in front of 20,000 people!  We have a great time together on and off stage. The week before We Day Vishal launched his campaign, Chalk it Up for Charity and raised $900 for a water project in Sierra Leone. I believe that Vishal very motivating, inspiring and empowering to a lot of people. He is such an awesome guy to work with and I am so excited to travel across Canada speaking with him!

All of this and it’s only the first We Day for me! It just started and can’t to see new cities, make new memories, meet new people and share more experiences!