THUNDER BAY – Thirty years ago, Whitney Houston told the world she believes the children are the future.
Her song, The Greatest Love of All, hit the charts two decades before the current crop of students attending Wednesday’s We Stand Up forum at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium were born. But the message being delivered was one in the same.
It’s about empowering students to make a difference in the world, a lesson organizers hope will stick with the 1,400 or so in attendance throughout their lives.
Seventeen-year-old Jacqueline Dyck, a Grade 12 students at Hammarskjold High School, said the best possible result from the annual event would be for someone in the audience to go back to class and start a movement of their own.
“That’s really what we’re trying to inspire here today, is for kids to take their own action on issues that they are passionate about.”
It does happen, she said.
“Our first year, a Grade 8 class from one of the schools in Thunder Bay started an anti-bullying event at our school because they came to our event. They were so inspired and saw that so many students were being bullied at their school, so they decided to take a stand against it,” Dyck said.
In its third year, We Stand Up included speakers from all walks of life, including spoken word poet Chris Tse, motivation speaker Talitha Tolles and speaker and poet Wali Shah, selected in 2014 as one of Canada’s top 20 under 20.
Tse, a Vancouver native, talked about good human beings, which often brings to mind the likes of Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr. or Ghandi.
It’s simpler than that, he said.
“It’s people who care about other people and people who want to make a difference in the world, no matter how big or how small,” Tse said. “What we’re here to talk about today is that you don’t have to be one of those big-time names … in order to make a difference in your community or to be a good human being.”
Vincent Pelaia, a 17-year-old graduating student at St. Ignatius High School, said hearing the words of their peers have a much more powerful impact than hearing it from parents and teachers.
And now’s the time to deliver the message and hope it sticks, he said.
“The youth are our future. We want our future to look as bright as possible and inspire them to do good in their community and around the world,” he said. “It leads to a good future.”
