Local students participate in WE Day 2019

Elk Island Public Schools (EIPS) sent students from six schools to attend the WE Day event in Edmonton.

Students from A.L. Horton Elementary, Clover Bar Junior High, Lakeland Ridge, Rudolph Hennig Junior High, Win Ferguson Elementary and Wye Elementary attended the event at Rogers Place, on Tuesday October, 22.

“Taking our students to WE Day helps foster the belief that they can make positive change, as well as building their leadership skills,” said Lori Nelson, a counsellor at Rudolph Hennig. “Our whole school culture benefits as a result of the work these students do, and it’s important to show them their efforts are not going unnoticed.”

Students heard speeches from world famous activities, public speakers along with musicians telling stories of  successful social justice, share calls to action and encourage students to keep fighting to make the world a better place.

In order to attend students had to qualify through showing that they have made a commitment to social justice issues in their own communities and elsewhere, whether that be through fundraising, awareness campaigns or another act of public service.

“WE Day is a nice perk for the activities we do throughout the year,” said Kaelyn Cooper, a Grade 9 student and member of the Me to We student group at Rudolph Hennig. “But it’s really just the icing on the cake. The work we do is important, and WE Day gives us a chance to reflect on how much we’ve accomplished.”

At Rudolph Hennig, students have spent the past year taking part in various local change making campaigns, like gathering warm clothes for those in need, collecting more than 1800 lbs. of food for Christmas hampers and raising awareness about bullying, poverty and discrimination in the community. On top of that students continue their efforts to raise money for self-reliance and income opportunity programs in Tanzania.

WE Day is an annual event and for more information click here.