Welcome ~ Bienvenue

Inspiring, motivating, awesome, empowering, life changing… these are some of the words used by our students to describe their experience at We Day Atlantic last week. Held at the Halifax Metro Center, We Day gathered 8000 teachers and students to hear a variety of speakers, musicians and social justice advocates talk about and celebrate the power of ‘WE’. Hosted by Free the Children, We Day is a reward for students who commit to participating in one local and one global action through the coming calendar year. It is a high impact, fast paced day of challenge geared to encourage young people to be a generation of change makers. Our students were able to hear from speakers like Martin Luther King Jr III, Spencer West, Michaëlle Jean, Hedley, Kardinal Official and Classifed just to name a few.
It is noteworthy that 12 of our students were involved as volunteers with this event. They participated in two training sessions and worked as crowd pumpers during the event to help build and maintain the enthusiasm and excitement for the youth in attendance. Our participants, 25 in number, were crowd pumpers in their own right as they rallied other student participants who waited in long line ups outside the Metro Center before the show. Our energy and enthusiasm were infectious!
We are excited to share with our school community that North Queens Students for Social Justice were recognized for outstanding contribution to the Free the Children movement. As a result, we were invited to send student and staff representation to the Evening of Champions Gala held the night before We Day. During this special event, we were the only school to be recognized from the South Shore Regional School Board. Students got to hear from Free the Children founder Craig Kielberger and got to meet Molly Burke, Spencer West, Marc Kielberger and some other We Day personalities. North Queens even made it to the big screen at We Day as our school was profiled forour Anti-bullying efforts with our ‘Stand Up’ photo!
This event isn’t over. We Day is just one day in a yearlong challenge to ‘Be the Change’. Our students have big dreams and ideas for the year ahead. They hope to challenge our school and our greater community to help in the building of a school through Free the Children. To do this they are working to launch a school-wide campaign that challenges schools throughout the South Shore to work together to get this job done. 2013-2014 is the Year of Education and together we are hoping to learn while building an education for others. Our first campaign will be a coin drive called We Create Change. Stay tuned for information to get involved and add your brick to a school wall in another country!