Students committed to service projects earn tickets to star-studded We Day event

SEATTLE — Returning for a second year, an event called We Day brought 15,000 students and teachers to Key Arena to hear celebrities perform and talk about what inspires them to create change.

The event is an initiative of Free the Children, an international charity and educational organization.

Four hundred fifty schools from across Washington brought students to the show. All students who attended had to earn their ticket by committing to one local and one global initiative of their choice.

We Day is connected to the year-long We Act program, which offers free educational resources, student-led campaigns and support materials to help these students with their service projects.

This year, speakers included Martin Luther King III and Spencer West, a double amputee who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

Students also heard from Pete Carroll and several players from the Seattle Seahawks, Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, former Seattle Sounders player Roger Levesque and actor Edward Norton.

Norton told the audience about his website, CrowdRise, where many children have raised money for causes by posting information about their projects on the site.

“Kids today are much more globally connected than we were, certainly than our parents were. They have a much stronger awareness of global problems, of what the conditions of life are for people in other parts of the world,” Norton told KIRO 7.

Super Bowl champions Russell Wilson, Derrick Coleman, Jermaine Kearse and Bobby Wagner also spoke to the students.

Before getting on stage, Wilson told KIRO 7, “We're out here sharing our story, sharing the experience from this year and our lives, and we're excited about this moment.”

Roger Levesque said he knows the crowd was full of Seahawks love, but he found people in Sounders jerseys too.

Levesque said each child would likely resonate with a different speaker or message.

“Each kid will walk out of here with that they can internalize, and that will impact their view on how they can impact the world,” Levesque said.

KIRO