We Day

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Youth event by We Charity

title: "We Day" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["annual-events-in-canada", "recurring-events-established-in-2007", "we-charity"] description: "Youth event by We Charity" topic_path: "geography/canada" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Day" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Youth event by We Charity ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox recurring event"]

FieldValue
logoWe Day logo 2016.jpg
imageJustice_Murray_Sinclair_of_Manitoba.jpg
frequencyAnnual
locationCanada, United States and U.K.
first2007
last2020
participants200,000+
organizedWE Charity
websitehttp://www.we.org/we-day/
years_active2007–2020
::

| logo = We Day logo 2016.jpg | image = Justice_Murray_Sinclair_of_Manitoba.jpg | ends = | date = | frequency = Annual | location = Canada, United States and U.K. | first = 2007 | last = 2020 | participants = 200,000+ | organized = WE Charity | website = http://www.we.org/we-day/ | footnotes = |years_active=2007–2020}}

We Day (stylized as WE Day) was an annual series of stadium-sized youth empowerment events organized by We Charity (formerly known as Free The Children), a Canadian charity founded by brothers Marc and Craig Kielburger. WE Day events host tens of thousands of students and celebrate the effect they have made on local and global issues. Students earn their tickets by participating in the We Schools program, a year-long service learning program run by We Charity. Each event features a lineup of social activists, speakers and musical performances. The event was cancelled in September 2020 with the winding down of Canadian operations of the We Charity, following the WE Charity scandal.

Background

The first WE Day was held in October 2007, at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto, Canada. Since then, the program has expanded to include annual events in 17 cities in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, including Vancouver, London, Chicago and Seattle. The event has featured speeches by global leaders such as Al Gore, Elie Wiesel, Martin Luther King III, Kofi Annan and performances by artists such as Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Lilly Singh, Jennifer Hudson and Nelly Furtado.

WE Charity does not charge an admission fee for school groups or individual students to attend WE Days. To earn entry, schools must pledge to engage in one local and one international effort. WE Charity provides a limited number of tickets to each school and lets the schools decide how to choose which students attend. As of 2014, WE Days take place in 14 cities worldwide, with more than 200,000 students from 8,000 schools in attendance.

According to the WE Charity website WE Days are funded through dedicated cash and in-kind corporate donations. No program donations from youth or private individuals are used to fund WE Day.

WE Day and its parent organization have been criticized for its industry partnerships, including to companies with ties to child labor around the world. WE Day has also been criticized for perceived promotion of corporate sponsors and for pressuring students to promote we.org through social media. In his work on "orphanage tourism," Joseph Cheer, an academic at the Center for Tourism Research at Wakayama University, has criticized WE Day for promoting a for-profit volunteerism model encouraging participants to essentially reframe selfishness as altruistic. Due to a 2020 controversy concerning a contract award, We Charity has scrapped WE Day "for the foreseeable future" in a restructuring move.

WE Schools

WE Schools campaigns cover a range of social issues, such as "WE Scare Hunger", in which participants collect canned food items for their local food banks each Halloween, and "WE Are Silent", a vow of silence in which participants stay silent for 24 hours in solidarity with children overseas whose rights are not upheld.

Events

Cancellation

The event was cancelled in September 2020 with the winding down of Canadian operations of the We Charity, following the WE Charity scandal.

References

References

  1. "Squamish represents at We Day 2014".
  2. (2018-09-13). "WE Day".
  3. (2013-03-27). "Stars shine at We Day, inspire students to change the world".
  4. (9 September 2020). "Kielburgers 'devastated' by We Charity closure but say 'there's no one to blame'".
  5. "WE Charity winding down operations in Canada after student grants scandal".
  6. (2013-09-20). "We Day Toronto: MLK III Shares A Secret With We Day".
  7. (2014-08-28). "Empowering young global citizens at "We Day"".
  8. Friend, David. (2018-11-13). "'Superwoman' star Lilly Singh joins creators taking a break from YouTube".
  9. "'We Day Family' event encourages kids, parents to help change the world {{!}} Entertainment & Showbiz from CTV News".
  10. "We Day creating compassionate Saskatchewan youth". Global News.
  11. Sanders, Hosea. (2015-04-15). "We Day celebrates volunteering across community, globe". ABC7 Chicago.
  12. "WE Day Special Airs Friday August 17 on ABC! {{!}} ABC Updates".
  13. Kerr, Jaren. (15 October 2018). "Craig Kielburger Founded WE To Fight Child Labour. Now The WE Brand Promotes Products Made By Children". Canada Land.
  14. (November 16, 2015). "We Day's blend of activism, corporate messages prompts criticism from teacher". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
  15. Atkinson, Alison. (2013-10-30). "A Teacher's Critique of 'We Day'".
  16. (2019-11-25). "Modern Day Slavery and Orphanage Tourism". CABI.
  17. Bensadoun, Emerald. (July 22, 2020). "WE Charity cancels WE Day activities for 'foreseeable future' after grant controversy".
  18. "Another We Scare Hunger Campaign".
  19. "Free The Children We Are Silent Campaign".
  20. Irish, Paul. "Rallying to spark change," Toronto Star. Oct. 16, 2008 https://www.thestar.com/SpecialSections/article/517384
  21. Paul Irish: [https://web.archive.org/web/20121019113542/http://www.thestar.com/SpecialSections/article/517384 Rallying to spark change]. Toronto Star. October 16, 2008.
  22. [https://archive.today/20120730012046/http://www.ctvnews.ca/national-me-to-we-day-2008-1.333362 “National Me to We Day.”] CTV News. Oct. 16, 2008.
  23. link. (2018-11-16 Vancouver Sun. September 30, 2009.)
  24. Sunny Dhillon: {{usurped
  25. (7 February 2013). "We (Day) can change the world". The Minnesota Star Tribune.
  26. (12 July 2013). "Selena Gomez to Host We Day Vancouver!". We Day.
  27. O'Neill, Doug. (3 March 2014). "We Day London 2014".
  28. (2015-05-04). "Celebrites [sic] Support Youth At We Day Illinois". Look to the Stars.
  29. (2015-04-30). "Celebrities Help Young Volunteers Mark "We Day" In Illinois".
  30. "Selena Gomez Hosting 'We Day' 2015 {{!}} Maui {{!}} Z100 Portland". Z100 Portland.
  31. "Michelle Obama added to 'We Day' special hosted by Selena Gomez". EW.com.
  32. (2015-08-22). "TV Ratings Friday: 'We Day' Low, 'Dateline' Up, '20/20′ Down, 'Masters of Illusion' Flat".
  33. (September 22, 2015). "We Day Toronto Line-up Announcement". We Day.
  34. (October 1, 2015). "WE Day Toronto 2015: The Recap". We Day.
  35. (13 October 2016). "'We Day Family' event encourages kids, parents to help change the world {{!}} Entertainment & Showbiz from CTV News".
  36. "High-octane We Day Toronto sparks young minds".
  37. "Talent lineup for We Day Toronto".
  38. (2016-10-19). "Gord Downie captures students' attention with emotional performance at We Day {{!}} Globalnews.ca".
  39. "Press release: WE Day UN in New York celebrates young people changing the world".
  40. Croezen, Alyssa. "WE Day UN Takes New York".
  41. Canada, HELLO!. "Kelly Clarkson set to host Toronto WE Day events {{!}} HELLO! Canada".
  42. (2017-09-28). "Prince Harry, Other WE Day Stars Put An All-Call Out For Kindness".
  43. "WE 2017".
  44. Craig, Nicola. (2017-03-08). "WE Day Announce UK Line Up".
  45. ForesiReporter, Tiffany. (2019-01-03). "The York Family's Royal Year in Review".
  46. "WE Day schedule 2018".
  47. BWW News Desk. "WE Day UN Celebrates With Sarah Michelle Gellar, Darren Criss, Nas, And More!".
  48. "Surprise! Prince Harry Shocks Crowd at Youth Event by 'Dragging' Meghan Markle on Stage".
  49. "Prince Harry surprises crowd, brings Duchess Meghan on stage for WE Day appearance".
  50. (2019-04-24). "WE Day lineup: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Laurie Hernandez among speakers".
  51. Earley, Helen. (2017-11-23). "We Day Atlantic: Empowering Youth to Create Change".
  52. "Bianca Andreescu Gives Inspirational Surprise Speech At Toronto's We Day (VIDEO)".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

annual-events-in-canadarecurring-events-established-in-2007we-charity