As more than 20,000 students came together at Rogers Arena to celebrate We Day Vancouver, the B.C. government has announced it is again providing $100,000 to encourage students to embrace global awareness.

Education Minister Peter Fassbender made the announcement at a special education breakfast to kick off We Day along with teachers, other educators, superintendents and school administrators from throughout the province.

This is the fifth consecutive year the ministry has made a donation to Me To We and its partner organization Free the Children to support the event.

Recording artist, actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Selena Gomez is hosting the star-studded event on the main stage which features Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Shawn Mendes and Kardinal Offishall.

We Day is an initiative of Free The Children, led by co-founders Craig and Marc Kielburger. The goal of We Day Vancouver is to motivate youth to make a difference in their communities and around the world. Each student group that attends is asked to make a commitment of one local and one global action throughout the year in order to help create positive change in the world.

Quotes:

Peter Fassbender, Minister of Education -

“One of the goals in our transformation of B.C.’s education system is to encourage students to engage to a greater level with their communities and to develop a global consciousness. We Day gives students an opportunity to put that into practice and help make a better world in the process.”

Marc Kielburger, co-founder of Free The Children -

“The Ministry of Education has been a great contributor to We Day and the year-long educational program We Act and we want to thank them for their support and their efforts in bringing together students and teachers from more than 650 schools to share in the inspirational message of global change.”

Learn More:

We Day: www.weday.com

BC’s Education Plan: WWW.BCEDPLAN.CA

Media Contacts:

Government Communications and Public Engagement
Ministry of Education
250 356-5963