Fort St. James high school students were inspired to think a bit more about the “we” and less about the “me” recently.
A group of Fort St. James and Vanderhoof students were loaded onto a bus to attend a We Day event in Vancouver on October 18.
The event saw 20,000 youth crowd into the Rogers Arena to hear inspirational speakers and performers, including Magic Johnson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Demi Lovato, and Cody Simpson.
Rhiannon Gammon, a local Grade 10 student at Fort St. James Senior Secondary, said one of the speakers who stood out for her was Molly Burke, a young motivational speaker who lost her sight as a teenager. Burke spoke about bullying, and it was not until the end of her speech when it became clear to the audience she was blind.
Her speech was powerful for Gammon because “she’s been through so much it really made me respect what she said,” said Gammon.
“It gave me chills,” said Kaylee Walstrom, another Fort St. James student who attended the event.
Both were most impressed with Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s speech, who they had been looking forward to seeing.
“He’s really lighthearted, but his message was clear,” said Walstrom.
They said he made every one at the event feel welcome and included, and made listeners want to just sit down and hear his stories.
Gammon, who has been participating in Me to We campaigns since she was in Grade 8 hopes to continue with different projects.
“Personally, I’d like to do something about social change locally,” she said.
The Free the Children group at the high school which meets each week has done Halloween for Hunger campaigns for a number of years, collecting food bank donations on Halloween instead of candy. This year the group delivered over 200 food items to the Learning Hub for their food bank.
Walstrom and fellow participant Gabriella Willick also both said they would also like to become involved in some campaigns Walstrom said she likes the opportunity to get involved in the global campaigns We Day does such as collecting penniestowards drinking water projects in developing countries.