Students from Nechako Valley Secondary School and W.L. McLeod Elementary School were flown to Edmonton for WE Day on Oct. 12.
WE Day is an event that happens all over Canada, to honour the work of youth involved in its programs and to get them excited about making the world a better place. The Edmonton event featured Margaret Trudeau, who spoke about clean water issues, student leaders, and heard performances by Shawn Hook, Scott Helman and Lights.
Typically, the students would attend WE Day in Vancouver, taking a bus at least 10 hours to get there. One year, the trip lasted 17 hours, the students finally arriving in Vancouver after two breakdowns and getting on a new bus.
Michelle Miller-Gautier, who helps run the Me to We group at W.L. McLeod Elementary, says she noticed that sometimes other students flew to WE Day, so she decided to call WestJet and ask if they offered any discounts.
In mid-September, WestJet offered them roundtrip flights to Edmonton to attend WE Day, a workshop with another school in Edmonton, and floor seats at the WE Day event. They even covered breakfast.
At the event, 11-year-old Liam Wruth, a grade six student at W.L. McLeod, was also asked to speak about Me to We Vanderhoof and his own efforts to make the world a better place. He addressed a crowd of 20,000 students.
Wruth says his most memorable moment of the day was meeting Craig Kielburger, his role model and one of the founders of Me to We.
Linnea Moutray, a grade 11 student at NVSS also attended the WE Day event. She says she’s been going to these events since she was in grade seven. “The previous times I’ve been we’ve been very up high and it’s really hard to see the stage.
“So just being there, I actually felt more in the moment and apart of WE Day. It was just something where I felt like I really got more inspired because I actually got to hear and see everything from a new perspective.”
Another highlight for Moutray was a near high five with Lilly Singh, a famous YouTuber and one of her role models.
Back home in Vanderhoof now, the Me to We groups at both schools are competing against each other in a food drive called We Scare Hunger, which comes to an end on Nov. 1 and donates to the local food bank. Other projects the groups have participated in include campaigns for clean water in Canada and Kenya, addressing food shortages, both locally and globally, and recycling electronics.
newsroom@ominecaexpress.com
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