By Sonya Davidson
You may have noticed a bit of social media buzz today for the launch of the North American We Day Empowerment Tour with organization Free The Children.
The event hosted 20,000 kids in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre for the inspirational event with speeches and performances by celebrities and social justice movers and shakers like the Queen Noor of Jordan, Colonel Chris Hadfield, Katie Couric, Hedley, Kendrick Lamar, Big Sean, Joe Jonas, and corporate leaders from Telus, Ford, RBC, Globe and Mail and many others. Hit jump for the details.
It’s a star-studded event with a focus this year on education and empowerment. But kids couldn’t buy tickets to the most sought after event of the year, they had to earn their seat in the arena through their commitment and passion of helping others locally and globally.
Free the Children and Telus also partnered to launch the new We365 App (available through iTunes or Google Play). The app encourages kids take on daily challenges to make their world a better place with whatever inspires them. Daily challenges are uploaded and kids can explore the causes that are important to them. From animals, to environment, education, health and community there is many ways to inspire kids to make a difference in the world. Kids can earn badges also for a chance to get hooked up with awesome prizes. The app also gives kids a place where they can track their volunteer hours – great for teens who need these for high school! Teachers and parents can also check out the challenges for ideas on issues that are of interest to kids.
The We365 app is free and for every download, Telus will donate $5 to Free The Children until November 30, 2014. In addition, Telus will also give $25 in support of We Day with the purchase of any tablet from $0 on a two-year Easy Tablet plan.
The Telus We Day partnership with Free The Children is a five year multi-million dollar partnership as National Co-Title Sponsor of We Day in Toronto, Vancouver, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Montreal, Waterloo, Halifax and National We Day in Ottawa. Since 2007, Telus has given over $12 million to support Free The Chidlren and We Day.