At Ecole de l’Anse-au-sable, a French elementary and secondary school in Kelowna, working on clean water initiatives is one of many projects on the agenda.
The school has several WE Day ambassadors — youths who are actively making a difference in communities, locally and globally.
“WE Day is a movement that started about 12 years ago” explains Patricia Schmid, staff assistant at the school. “Two brothers from Ontario started the movement and it has grown, not only in Canada, but it’s in the U.K. It’s in Australia.”
Schmid has been helping the school’s ambassadors achieve their humanitarian goals for the past four years.
“We really endeavor to make a difference in the world,” Schmid said. “My students have become very passionate about having clean drinking water accessible to everyone in the world, including places in Canada.”
The group collects bottles, cans and other recyclables regularly, cleans the containers and trades them in for cash to donate to communities that don’t have clean drinking water.
“When we recycle this way, it permits it to have a new life,” said WE Day ambassador Agathe Riopel. “It also permits us to help people. That’s the most important part — helping people.”
Every year, thousands of WE Day ambassadors gather in large stadiums across 17 cities around the world.
In Vancouver, about 20,000 young people attended the celebration in late November, including a couple dozen students from Ecole de l’Anse-au-sable and one lucky ambassador, who got to speak in front of the immense crowd.
“This year we got an honorary mention at WE Day. It’s our fourth year to participate,” Schmid said. “And my students were asked to have one person represent us on stage to explain how we raise money for clean water and why we were so passionate about it and why it became so successful.”
That speaker was Juliette Ballee, a seventh grader who volunteered for the daunting task.
“When I went on stage I thought, ‘This is so much fun,’” Ballee said. “I want to do it again.”
Ballee is working hard to combat the environmental impact of the human footprint.
“I want to make a difference in the world. There’s so much pollution,” Ballee said. “Just to see so many bottles that can be recycled to have clean water put in them.”
Helping the students is a labour of love for Schmid, who has been known to spend her Saturdays off with the children at the bottle depot.
“I do what I do because the children make me passionate for these causes that I believe in, and I enjoy spending time with them and seeing their creativity,” Schmid said emotionally.
“When you go to WE Day and you’re surrounded by 20,000 high school kids that have so much to give to make this world better, that’s why I give my time.”