Taking my Girl to We Day with Team Telus

At the age of 11, Sydney is fast approaching the age when she’ll be avoiding hanging with me. These days I am often greeted by rolled eyes or “le sighs” when I suggest spending time together. When I was offered the chance to attend We Day in Toronto with Team Telus Advocates I knew this would be one outing that Sydney would truly dig experiencing with me.

We drove down to Toronto and stayed in a hotel the night before We Day because the area was a madhouse in the morning. Then we made our way over to the ACC and found our fellow Team Telus Advocates and headed to the red carpet!! Syd was a pro with this, she immediately found a spot front and centre and took to snapping pics and sharing videos as her favourite stars arrived.

This was everything I’d hoped for; we were laughing together and she was experiencing something new and exciting! We were about to head inside to our seats when the crowd beside us began going NUTS….and low and behold Nick Jonas had arrived. Well…Sydney ran back to her spot, raised her camera and made her mama proud!

I should stop at this point and tell you about We Day because if you haven’t heard about it, this may not make sense. We Day is an invitation only event which is a powerful life-changing experience for many kids.

Over 40,000 students jammed into the ACC to see live shows and speakers from some empowering celebs. Students who attend have committed to a year-long educational initiateive called We Schools. Within this program, kids commit to taking on one local and one global action such as collecting food for the local homeless shelter or taking donations to help build a school abroad.

Once Syd was done on the red carpet, we grabbed a Starbucks and headed to our seats. 2015 We Day has an amazing lineup with inspiring speakers such as Magic Johnson, Nina Dobrev and Henry Winkler combines with talent such as Hosier, Nick Jonas, Hedly and Shawn Mendes the day was mapped out to blow these kids away.

Photo via We Day

Photo via We Day

This day is one neither Sydney nor myself will forget. We were surrounded by the voices and energy of 40,000 others who were all completely jazzed to be in the same space. There were snippets in time when my spirited child and I shared a laugh and connected as it’s often hard to do in every day life. We were absorbed together in this day.

As a Team Telus Advocate, I have the opportunity to attend amazing events such as We Day because Telus supports their community. This partnership began in 2007 and since its inception, Telus has donated $16 million to Free The Children’s efforts in Canada and around the world!!

This year Telus has teamed up with Francesco Yates to remix his hit song “Call” with the help of Canadians to create the social anthem of our generation. We met Francesco Yates at We Day and what an awesome lad he is! He spent time with us, chatting, allowing us to snap some pics and hear about this partnership.

Telus, MTV and Frencesco Yates put a call out for people to share this video below, for each shar using #CallForChange they’d donate $10 to Free The Children. Have a look at the video, there may be some folks you know!

YOU joined the movement + helped remix ‘Call’ by @FrancescoYates. See who else accepted the #CallForChange! https://t.co/kFeIv9jg88

— TELUS (@TELUS) October 1, 2015

The performances and speakers were amazing, Sydney had been to We Day events in the past but this was the first where she left expressing interest in “doing something” over the next year. This is a BIG deal for my girl who lives in the moment. She doesn’t normally have the ability to plan long-term and on that day, on the way home her wheels were turning. She knows I’m ready, willing and able to assist so I’m excited to see what comes of this. Even if she doesn’t actually begin a long-term plan, I know that this day has impacted her to think outside of her daily existence.

Thank you to my friends at Telus for sending us to this epic day, your work in our community is inspiring!