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Health & Fitness

We Day Seattle 2013

One could not just buy a ticket to We Day, in fact, one had to earn it through community service and activism in his or her community.

Jennifer Hudson, Nelly Furtado, MC Hammer, Steve Ballmer, Martin Luther King III, the Kid President, Magic Johnson, Gary Payton, Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, surprise performer Macklemore and many more.

They were all in one room, all for one cause.

We Day Seattle 2013.

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For 30 members of the Falcon family, made up of students, administration, teachers, and parent volunteers, the chance to attend We Day at Key Arena on March 27, 2013 was an incredible and once in a lifetime opportunity.

We Day is an event that originated in Canada and is sponsored by the charity called Free the Children. The two founders, Marc and Craig Kielburger, came out and talked to the 15,000 in attendance at Key Arena multiple times throughout the event, calling on us, the future generation, to be the ones who continue to demand change for a better future.

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One could not just buy a ticket to We Day, in fact, one had to earn it through community service and activism in his or her community. 15,000 people strong, those in attendance represented 100 different school districts across the state of Washington.

Some schools did canned food drives for their local organizations, others knitted hats for those in Kenya, others did clothing drives, helped rebuild houses and schools and much more.

One main topic during We Day was the promotion of the campaign called “We Are Silent.” On April 18th, young people are encouraged to take a vow of silence for children’s rights because our silence is their voice. 215 million children worldwide are forced to work as child laborers. It is our job to bring awareness to this issue by going silent for 24 hours to raise awareness and funds for these children without a voice.

In addition to both the avocation of this campaign and the multiple dance and singer performances throughout the day, many inspirational speakers spoke to the crowd as well.

CEO of Microsoft Steve Ballmer, spoke about how we are the generation that needs to initiate change through our words and our actions. He believed in “the chance for every single person in this room to make a difference.”

Spencer West, the man who lost his legs when he was only five, but fought against all odds and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro only using his hands, spoke to the captivated audience about listening to your heart and going for your desires despite all odds.

Liz Murray, the woman known for getting admitted and graduating from Harvard despite being homeless on the streets of New York in her high school years, talked about the need for every young person to keep on pursuing their dreams and never give up.

Molly Burke, the young girl who at age four was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a disease causing a loss in vision, spoke to the audience about never giving up when faced with challenges because each and every one of us can do anything we put our minds to.

Michel Chikwanine told the story of how he was abducted at age five to be a child solider. To be initiated, the rebels cut his wrist and took a mixture of cocaine and gun power and rubbed it into his wound so he would go crazy. The rebels forced a gun into his hand and told him to shoot. He killed his best friend.

Despite this tragic event, Michel eventually broke free of the rebels and made it back home to his family. To this day, he travels around the nation, sharing his story, being the voice for all those 300,000 child soldiers who don’t have a voice of their own.

These were only a few examples of the many inspirational speakers that spoke at We Day Seattle 2013. For more information or videos of the event, check out www.weday.com.

“The most powerful weapon is the human soul on fire”

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