On Oct. 30, 2012, the H.O.P.E. committee’s 56 members and four staff advisors attended a youth rally called “We Day” along with 18,000 other Manitoba students. “We Day” was put on by the “Free the Children” organization and was held at Winnipeg’s MTS Centre. H.O.P.E. is a student group that operates out of NACI, including members from Grades 7-12. We have existed at the high school for two years now. Our aim is to create positive change both locally and globally. Last year we did a number of projects around the community, like cleaning up Rotary Park. We also took on a global project where we supported a community in Kenya, Africa. “We Day” is a youth rally that our group was very privileged to attend. Its purpose is to raise awareness about both Canadian and global issues that our world is faced with. Many great speakers and performers were there. These included the founders of the “Free the Children” Organization, Mark and Craig Kielburger, who are extremely passionate and inspiring for students like us because Craig started his foundation at the young age of 12. Other speakers included Spencer West, who has no lower limbs, but climbed Mount Kilimanjaro this past June using only his hands. He did this in order to raise money for water projects in Africa. We were also privileged to be in the company of Mikhail Gorbachev, a profound leader who changed the face of the world during the Cold War. He was one of the world leaders who put an end to the possibility of a nuclear war. Various entertainers that support our cause were also at “We Day”, like the artist “Lights”. Even students like Hannah Taylor, the founder of the Lady Bug Foundation, spoke at “We Day”. Personally for Allie she stated, “ My favorite part of We Day was having the chance to listen to Spencer West, because I find his story so inspiring and I think he reminds us all to be very grateful for what we have”. For Courtney, she said, “The best part of the day was seeing 18,000 students so energized and motivated to make a difference.” Courtney also was impacted by Molly Burke who is blind and told her story about being a victim of bullying in her school. Courtney realized that even after having experienced severe trauma in her life, Molly was able to get up and speak to a crowd of people with confidence. This too was very inspiring for Courtney. “We Day” was a very positive experince for our group because it made us aware of local and global issues that still need to be addressed, while also acknowledging us and making us feel empowered because of the humanitarian work that we have already done. Finally, it gave us inspiration and ideas for projects to take on during this year. Some projects that our group has already completed are 2011’s Water Project, where we raised $5,000 for a water sanitation system in Kenya. This year, we have also already done a food collection drive for the community called “Scare Away Hunger”, in which we collected 2,250 pounds of food and a jeans drive where we collected 45 pairs of men’s jeans for a homeless shelter. Some projects that we tentatively plan to do are “We Are Silent”, where students in our school vow to be silent for a day in order to raise awareness and take a stand against bullying, and for children all around the world who have no voice in what happens in their life. A second project we are planning is “We Create Change”, which will be a coin drive to raise money for our third project, our adopted village. Our adopted village is in Kenya. As mentioned earlier, we have already built a water sanitation system to provide the village with clean water so this year, we plan to raise another $5,000 to put towards the Health Care Pillar through “Free the Children”. This will provide our village with medicine, vaccines, and education about how to keep themselves healthy so that the people there can live healthy lives free of illness that hinders them. In conclusion, our group wants to say that we really appreciated the chance to attend “We Day” and we hope to use the knowledge that we gained there to have another successful year of creating positive change in our community and around the world.