As some people might know, We Day is an event hosted by the charity “Me To We” in major cities in three countries to inspire young leaders from across the world. This year, We Day Toronto was on Wednesday October 19, and I had the privilege of attending to learn valuable leadership lessons
The students from the Ridge had to come in at 6:15 am to catch a bus that we shared with another school to reduce costs. Fun fact: We Day is totally free, and the cost is mostly covered by sponsors. The only costs we had to pay were for transportation.
We arrived outside the Air Canada Center at around 7:15 and the sun was just starting to rise. It was packed already, but we had a good position in the entrance line, which didn’t start flowing until much later
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We got in and saw that on every single chair in the stadium was a t-shirt and a goodie bag that contained sponsor advertisements, sunglasses and a free book. Before long, every seat in the stadium was filled, with groups from We Schools, like the Ridge, and other individuals who earned their way to We Day through contributing volunteer hours to We Day initiatives. Another fun fact: you can’t buy a ticket to We Day, you have to earn it in some way.
We Day was a blast, with motivational speakers such as Chris Hadfield, Paula Abdul, Zendaya, Margaret Trudeau, Connor Franta and Lilly Singh. By the time lunch started, everybody was in a mad rush to do their part and support charity. There were a lot of stands fundraising by selling Me to We products, such as rafiki bracelets, but they were so packed, vendors had to walk among the crowd to support all the shoppers.
There were many great performers at We Day like the Tragically Hip, bringing awareness about the horror of residential schools, Jason Derulo and Hedley, whose show included a flying bicycle.
I feel I can safely say that every single person who went to We Day this year left as a better, more inspired person.
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