Skip to content

Whoohoo! We're getting our own movement (update)

Algoma youth are about to get their own empowerment movement. Five thousand young people will gather at Essar Centre on May 14 for #youthesoo , an event inspired by the Me To We movement led by Craig Kielburger, organizers announced this morning.

Algoma youth are about to get their own empowerment movement.

Five thousand young people will gather at Essar Centre on May 14 for #youthesoo, an event inspired by the Me To We movement led by Craig Kielburger, organizers announced this morning.

Jessi Cruickshank, of MTV Canada fame, will host the #youthesoo event, which will feature Kielburger and other motivational speakers, as well as musical guests.

Organizers bill the three-hour event as a “jam-packed, energy-fuelled happening.”

Davey Taylor, an Algoma District School Board teacher who has travelled with small groups of Algoma students to Kielburger’s We Day events in Toronto for the last several years, said bringing that kind of energy to the Sault is going to be great for students here.

“The beauty of this event is you’ve got 5,000 students rather than 55 students and it’s just a fantastic way to get the message out to more kids and really have a larger local impact and eventually something on a global scale,” said Taylor, a wellbeing special assignment teacher based out of the ADSB board office.

The event is a partnership between the ADSB, Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board and the Algoma Arts Festival Association, the group that organizes the Algoma Fall Festival.

Donna Hilsinger, Algoma Arts Festival Association president, said the idea for #youthesoo was hatched while talking with Kielburger, co-founder of Free the Children and the Me to We movement, at last year’s Algoma University business case competition.

“We wanted to create an opportunity for us here to build the confidence, the great thinking, and inspire our local students - to help them make a difference both locally within our community and as they grow, outside of the community as well,” said Hilsinger.

The We Day-inspired event is aimed at Grade 7-12 students and comes with a social activism challenge for youth to commit to one local and one global cause.

“It’s something (students) are not really going to be able to participate in at any other time. It’s going to bring all the students together and they’re going to have incredible high-profile speakers,” said Matt Sparling, H-SCDSB student trustee from St. Mary’s College. “It’s really going to amp them up and inspire them to innovate and try and change their world.”

#youthesoo will cost about $50,000, paid for by provincial grants received by both school boards and corporate sponsorships.

(PHOTO: Student trustees Madison MacLachlan, Andrew Kenopic and Matthew Sparling speak during this morning's announcement (top). Donna Hilsinger announces #youthesoo this morning (left). Michael Purvis/SooToday)


What's next?


If you would like to apply to become a Verified reader Verified Commenter, please fill out this form.