Our Director of Operations, Denis, recently attended WeDay in Toronto – below is his reflection on the experience
I had the pleasure of being invited as an honoured guest by Building Walls of Wisdom‘s partner Free The Children to take part in this year’s We Day in Toronto.
I must say Craig and Marc Kielburger, the founding brothers of Free the Children, know how to put on one heck of a show! I heard from an amazing lineup of speakers including: Justin Trudeau, Martin Sheen, Spencer West, Al Gore, Roméo Dallaire & Molly Burke to name a few. They also had some really great musical performances by The Tenors, Shawn Desman, Hedley, Nelly Furtado, K’Naan & Jennifer Hudson.
The entire day was geared towards rallying the sold out and invitation only crowd that earned their way to We Day of mostly young people from all over Ontario at the Air Canada Centre to continue to be Change Agents and “Be The Change.”
My biggest motivator to continue making a difference and realizing that any problem in life can be overcome and any goal you set can be achieved came when I was listening to Spencer West. This man has been in a wheelchair since he was a youngster because he lost his legs due to a genetic disease when he was five years old. However, this hasn’t stopped him from achieving his goals and making a difference in the world. To prove that anything is possible, this man Redefined Possible by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro this past summer on his two hands! Most able bodied people can barely achieve this feat! On top of that … He also helped raise over half a million dollars for clean water projects in East Africa while doing it.
This encouragement was felt throughout the day and all those present realized that no matter how difficult the problems you face, you can overcome anything and that no matter how minor you may think your fundraising or awareness raising efforts are, the simple act of doing something in a positive light can make a HUGE impact in the world.
At Building Walls of Wisdom, we started just over 3 years ago with a simple goal to build 10 schools in 10 years to help eradicate poverty in the most impoverished areas of the world. In that short time, we have funded over 7 school projects thanks to numerous Contributors and a growing number BuildWoW Chapters who have helped make a lasting impact on hundreds of school children in Kenya, Ecuador, Sri Lanka and Ghana.
That being said, our work is not nearly complete. Each and every one of us can be a Change Agent and can make a difference in one way or another.
You can help us by:
- Donating any amount towards our next BuildWoW project in Nicaragua;
- Helping one of our BuildWoW Chapters by donating funds or time towards their efforts;
- Asking us how to start your own Chapter in your community;
- Simply spreading awareness by Liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter or LinkedIn and going the extra step by sharing, retweeting and commenting on our posts and efforts for all your friends to see!
How will you Be The Change?
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