Students Attend We Day 2011

By: Alex 

Last Tuesday, twenty-three students from the Dream program boarded a bus for Toronto to attend We Day. We Day was started by Craig Keilburger, the founder of Free the Children, as a way of combating the self-centeredness of western society. “The purpose is to help kids start thinking more about we than about me,” said Reza Kazemi, the dream leader who accompanied the students on the trip. Dunnville Secondary School (DSS) is invited to attend because of some of the events in which the school partakes, for example: The Breakfast program, Toonies for Hunger and the Vow of Silence. “We day helps to tell us that in our pursuit of happiness we are only chasing mirages,” said Kazemi. The students spent the day listening to guest speakers including Patch Adams and Danny Glover, and musical guests such as Nelly Furtado, Joe Jonas, and Nikki Yanofsky. “There were a lot of genuine speakers who you really could feel how much they wanted to help others,” said Kazemi. The hopes of We day is to get young people to start thinking about not just themselves, but about their impact on the environment and the world around them. “This is the triple bottom line where you consider three factors when making decisions: Can I afford it? How will it affect the environment? How will it affect the world?” said Kazemi. Craig Keilburger was also on hand as a guest speaker and he was, “very authentic and still true to the message,” said Kazemi. Kazemi was first interested in We day when he learned about the message it was trying to send. “It is telling us that we all benefit from child labour from soccer balls, to shirts, and chocolate bars. It is about trying to find happiness in the happiness of others,” said Kazemi, “ The students who attended are going to be a platform of change in Dunnville and as they change their views, it will affect others as well.”