We Day

How do you get thousands of students to raise $37 million and volunteer over nine and a half million hours to change the world? Ask Craig and Marc Kielburger. They’ve done it and it’s called We Day.

We Day is a one day stadium-sized event that brings charities and inspiring speakers together for thousands of kids who have already spent a year making a difference. Craig and Marc have shared the We Day stage with change-makers such as Al Gore, Mikhail Gorbachev, Magic Johnson, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Larry King. This 2013-14 We Day season, there are 100,000 youth attending We Day events and 5.4 million people watching via broadcast.

The Canadian brothers started the We Day movement that has done all of this six years ago but Craig founded their nonprofit Free the Children when he was 12. Free the Children “has worked in over 45 countries since its inception, and has built more than 650 schools and school rooms in developing regions.”

Along the way, Craig and Mark also started the Adopt a Village Program and Me to We. “As a result of Adopt a Village programming, more than one million people have been provided with clean water, health care and sanitation; 30,000 women are economically self-sufficient; and $16 million in medical supplies have been shipped around the world.”

Me to We “offers socially conscious and environmentally-friendly clothes and accessories, as well as life-changing international volunteer trips, leadership training programs and materials, a speakers bureau, and books which address issues of positive social change.”

It started as a Canadian movement but has spread to the U.S. and the U.K. with We Day events in Seattle and Oakland this year.

National We Day is next Wednesday, April 9. “You can't buy a ticket to We Day—you earn it through service. Through the year-long We Act program, schools and groups take on one local and one global action and report back to Free The Children to earn their way to We Day.”

On my website, I have a list of children’s volunteer organizations. I’m going to add We Act and We Day to it because they are doing amazing things and may be the largest organization of children helping others in the world. To find ways to get involved, visit this We Day site. God Bless!