S.A.L.T. Students Attend WE Day

Twenty-five Crosby-Ironton students who are members of the Service
Adventure Leadership Team (S.A.L.T.) participated in a one of a kind event
called WE Day that was held at the Xcel energy center in St. Paul on
Wednesday, November 12th. There were 18,000 other students in
attendance to an event that you can’t buy a ticket for. WE day is a free event
to all student organizations that commit to doing a local and global service
project. WE day was organized by Free the Children, which is an
international charity and educational partner. WE day was founded by
brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger to provide empowerment to young
people to go out into their communities and serve and make positive changes
and turn their ideas into action, which they call WE ACT. This was the
second WE day event in Minnesota and there are more than a dozen cities in
North America that will host WE day events this year.

The day was filled with famous motivational and inspiring speakers, such as
Martin Sheen, Magic Johnson, J.R. Martinez, Spencer West, Kweku
Mandela, and the first lady in space Lt. Colonel Eileen Collins. There were
also less famous speakers that captivated the audience equally as well, and
they were young people who shared their stories about what they are doing
to change the world and make it more positive, such as speaker Ashley
Murphy. Students also heard stories about how acts of service and kindness
changed the lives of survivor of Rwandan genocide Clementine Wamariya,
and students Faith and Juliette from Kenya, and Mama Helen from Kenya
who heads up other mamas in Kenya to make jewelry for sustainable living.
Students were also entertained by famous artists including, the Band Perry,
Colbie Caillat, and iLuminate. More information about WE day can be
found on their website at weday.com

This WE day experience was made very personal for the twenty-five
students S.A.L.T. students from C-I because they were selected to have front
row seats at this event. Of the 500 schools in attendance at WE day, Crosby-
Ironton students knocked the socks off of Free the Children employees with
their acts of service last school year. Seats at this awesome event for most
schools are first come first serve, but this group of students had a WE day
volunteer waiting for them at the entrance gates and then told them about
their front row seats to the event. During the show, Crosby-Ironton students
were recognized for their awesome service projects and had the spotlight on
them for a moment. There were only a dozen other schools that received
this recognition. The students were shocked at this recognition only because
service is just something that this group enjoys doing. They don’t do it for
the recognition. Last year the S.A.L.T. group organized an event in Serpent

Park called Walk 4 Water and raised $900 for well that will supply clean
water in Kenya. Students also completed a lot of local service projects such
as WE Scare Hunger, which is a service project in which students trick or
treated for food for that was then donated to the Crosby food shelf. The
students completed WE Scare Hunger last year and this year. Students also
collect the recycling in the high school each week, do mineland clean-ups,
serve at the soup kitchen, and much more. This group is always looking for
more local ways to serve others.

The bus ride home from St. Paul was on opportunity to de-brief the event
and plan future service projects. The S.A.L.T. students have chosen Ecuador
for their global project. Free the Children has five pillars to support children
in third world countries and they include: clean water, education, food,
health and medicine, and sustainable jobs. This year S.A.L.T. students have
chosen sustainable jobs.

The S.A.L.T. students would not have been able to attend this event without
the financial support of the Cuyuna Lakes Education Foundation, who
provided the money for transportation to and from St. Paul, and Community
Education for covering sub cost. Students left WE day inspired and
motivated to go out into their communities and world to serve and make a
difference. All students felt the positive energy and were enthusiastic about
how the idea that all individuals no matter the age, race, economic status, or
physically handicapped CAN make a big change.