When I arrived at my school at 7 am this morning to catch the bus for We Day, an annual event in YYC that celebrates and inspires youth innovation, I was greeted with a hostility that made me wonder whether I had coffee breath, or someone had used my student ID photo on a poster for gonorrhoea. It seems that my fellow teenagers, even the lucky few chosen to attend this massive youth conference, do not do well with early mornings. But as the dust settled on our struggles to wake up, get dressed, and (maybe) eat breakfast in time to make the hour-long journey from our school in Okotoks to the Calgary Saddledome, the attitude of our group grew to befit the energy and cheer we would encounter on arrival.
As soon as we entered the building, an RBC-sponsored photographer snapped a photo of our group, and scanned our bracelets so that we would receive the picture by e-mail. We found our way to our row, escorted by “crowd pumpers” that interacted with attendees sporting headbands and glow sticks. Waiting for us on each of our seats was a small canvas bag with a novel-sized We Day book, Telus sunglasses, recipe booklet, and notepad inside. The whole thing was so well-organized that, as someone familiar with the inefficiency and frustration of being on a planning committee, it brought tears to my eyes.
The theme of the event was to shift our collective focus “from ‘me’ to ‘we'”; through the stories of impassioned youth who overcame adversity to share their ideas and talents with the world, we were reminded, over and over, that “impossibility” is a fabled concept.
And I know what you’re thinking; “those pie-in-the-sky, feel-good intangibles all sound pretty palpable to me! Yay for change, love, and empowerment!” But while a lot of the conference was geared towards simply inspiring us and getting us excited about serving others, the We Day team did provide us with many more specific ways to get involved; a representative from each school received a package with fundraising ideas organized into a realistic timeline, and all of us were given the resources to “track our impact” online through www.metowe.com.
We listened to testimonies from deaf actress Marlee Matlin, olympic medalist Silken Laumann, Canadian rapper Kardinal Offishall, and legless mountain-climber Spencer West. Perhaps the most noteworthy moment of the day was when Henry Winkler, A.K.A. “the Fonz”, shared about how he did not let failing Geometry (5 times) get in the way of achieving his dreams. And, of course, nothing could have been communicated nearly as effectively without the musical stylings of celebrity singer Francesco Yates, as well as the Band Perry and the Kenyan Boys Choir.
We Day co-founder Craig Kielburger told the 16 000 youth in attendance today that “a ticket to We Day cannot be bought; it must be earned.” So, I ask you, what will you do to earn your spot next year?