WE DAY! (Personal Addition #13)

This past Wednesday I had the privilege to participate in We Day Manitoba 2013. I went actually as a volunteer, and my job was a "crowd pumper". My job as a crowd pumper was to cheer and help set the tone for each performance. It was an amazing day and was so rewarding.

Here's the promo video for We Day itself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPvGuv3e4Tc

After the event was over, there was debate over Facebook and a couple of radio shows talked about if We Day is worth it. Does it actually do anything or is it just a frivolous concert that doesn't empower youth to act to create a better world? This was something I did have to consider, it is a lot of money to have We Day tour around, and it's not like youth purchase tickets. However, the more I thought about it, the more I agreed with We Day's intentions. 

First of all, just to attend the performance, everyone has to commit to doing one local and global action of good. That right there in Manitoba alone is more than 30,000 actions. 

Also, it's so overwhelming when you want to make the world a better place but don't know how and  it's such a comforting feeling when you know others are in the same position as you. We Day provides that, and shows you that there are millions of people in the world trying to do the same things you are. This also helps people realize that the impact you are making to the world, big or small adds up and can amount to a big movement. 

Another aspect I thought about, was We Day shows that volunteering and doing good things doesn't have to be a chore. It's about finding your passion and using that to help reach others to get them to do the same. It is also about helping other people; globally and locally not by only writing checks to organizations.

This year a really great concept that they have added is an app called "We365" where you can participate in challenges that help social change and you can log all of your volunteer hours. This is a way that you can continue to work with the energy that was created at We Day. 

The annual We Day in Manitoba is something I look forward to every year, it promotes such a positive energy to help make the world a better place and I truly believe is such a unique and effective way of empowering youth.

http://www.electrovoice.com/pressrelease.php?id=1379, http://umanitoba.ca/news/blogs/blog/2012/10/29/not-you-or-i-or-us-but-we/, http://www.straight.com/blogra/photos-we-day-vancouver-packs-rogers-arena-youth-and-celebrities, http://www.weday.com/what-is-we-day/our-story/

"We Day is the movement of our time"