Free The Children and MuchMusic revealed today Nina Dobrev, star of the hit series the VAMPIRE DIARIES, will be hosting this year’s We Day event taking place at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on September 27. Nina will team up with international musician Joe Jonas to lead the electric crowd of 18,000 student leaders through a day of inspiring speeches and performances from an epic line-up of Nobel Peace Laureates, world-renowned social activists, Golden Globe®, Grammy® and JUNO Award winners. In addition to hosting the show Joe Jonas will also perform his hit single See No More from his highly anticipated debut album.
An ambassador for Free The Children, Nina spoke at the inaugural We Day in 2007 and has travelled with the organization to the Maasai Mara region of Kenya to volunteer in communities where Free The Children carries out development work.
Also officially announced today, MuchMusic’s Jesse Giddings and television personality Jessi Cruickshank will host We Day in Vancouver taking place at the Rogers Arena on October 13, which will be led by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, NBA All-Star Shaquille O’Neal and other prominent entertainers and speakers.
Toronto and Vancouver We Days are being taped for a special to air on MuchMusic, Sunday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET. Both events will also be streamed live online at www.muchmusic.com/weday allowing people from all over the world to tune in and take part in the day.
About We Day
Youth coming together to lead global change is the movement of our time. We Day (www.weday.com) is the manifestation of this movement. Harnessing the energy and passion of this young community of change-makers, We Day brings youth together in an unparalleled setting to show them that they are not alone in their journey to make a difference. We Day is not just an event. It’s a movement.
We Day is part of an unparalleled educational opportunity called the We Schools in Action program. Throughout the year-long program, young people turn their inspiration into action by committing to take one local and one global action throughout the school year. In the 2010/2011 school year alone, youth volunteered 1.7 million hours in their communities and raised more than $5.4 million to support local and global organizations.
We Day events are completely free of charge to students and educators, thanks to the support of generous sponsors who believe in the power of youth to change the world.
About Free The Children
Free The Children (www.freethechildren.com) is the world’s largest network of children helping children through education, with more than one million youth involved in our innovative education and development programs in 45 countries. Founded in 1995 by international child rights activist Craig Kielburger, we are a charity and educational partner that believes in a world where all young people are free to achieve their fullest potential as agents of change. Our domestic programs educate, engage and empower hundreds of thousands of youth in North America, the UK and around the world. Our international projects have brought over 650 schools and school rooms to youth and provided clean water, health care and sanitation to one million people around the world.
Free The Children has a proven track record of success. The organization has received the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child (also known as the Children’s Nobel Prize), the Human Rights Award from the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations, and has formed successful partnerships with leading school boards and Oprah’s Angel Network.
