We are Silent

We had a successful We are Silent afternoon.  This is in honour of those who don't have a voice, who don't have the rights and privileges we do.

 After a slow start we had many participants and each bought a We are Silent mask for a dollar so that we made about 250 dollars profit to donate to our Me to We project in India.  All students were silent for the afternoon but some began earlier taking the vow all day.  Here are a couple of impressions of the afternoon from two Division One students

"We are doing the Vow of Silence right now, at

this moment.  It feels very different as I'm writing.  My neighbour who sits beside me would be normally chattering away if not for this Vow of Silence.  But, that is not the point of this, to keep noisy people from talking.  The major point in this whole thing is that others in this world don't have a right to speak up and defend or choose for themselves.  They don't get the opportunity.  So I feel pretty good knowing that we're doing this, supporting this!  I've done the Vow of Silence before and it felt weird to talk again afterwards.
But then, I got to realize that we get to talk and laugh and have that right after not speaking for so long yet the kids who we are doing this for won't!  They are stuck like that!  Knowing that feels terrible.  Then I know I am helping them and it helps the bad feeling inside.  I am very thrilled to be doing this We are Silent."  Arshpreet

"Today after lunch the Me to We club and other students and teachers around the school took part in the We are Silent.  Me to We had a fundraiser to sell We are Silent masks for a dollar.  On April 17th we decided to be silent.
It feels very quiet without talking.  I almost talked because if you want to tell someone something important you have to communicate but since I took a vow of I have to keep that vow.  Being silent makes me feel like I don't have a voice either, but it is great that our school has raised money to help kids who don't have a voice."  Ramdeep


Our next project will be asking for donations from those attending  our intermediate musical, the History of Rock and Roll on May 16.

What has been happening with Me to We?!

Here is a picture from our latest We to Me meeting.

We have had a busy few months in We to Me.  We had a very successful food drive at Christmas for the Food Bank.  900 items were collected as well as a donation of $90 that Division One made selling snacks to parents who attended the Christmas primary play.

We collected three hundred dollars worth of pennies for the the Free the Children/Royal Bank Clean Water campaign.  This is enough to give 12 people fresh water for life.That was a lot of penny counting.

The next fund raising event was selling candy grams for Valentine Day.   170.70 was raised.  We also had a fun event when we had the senior boys and girls basketball teams play a mixed exhibit game.  Spectators paid a dollar raising another $46.

Next project planned is the We are Silent annual fundraising and awareness-raising campaign.  Once again we are planning to sell masks to people to participate in our afternoon of silence and some students will be collecting pledges for being silent as well.   This event is to stand up for children who are being silenced by the denial of their basic human rights.  

Successful Campaign

Great work on Halloween for Hunger campaign.  Over 900 items were brought in for the Vancouver Food Bank. 

Next campaign will be We Create Change.  The fundraising committee has lots of great ideas they will be sharing with us.  Stay tuned.

Finally Pictures from We Day

Now where did those glasses come from?














There are some happy looking participants!

Are these some movie stars or something?













Looks like Amita is enjoying herself!

More happy faces!

And More on We Day

-->We Day 2012

We Day was very inspiring! I really enjoyed it. 

When we got there I was bored at first because the host had to keep saying these lines so they can edit them and put this in the T.V. special episode that will be shown on November 11 at 7:00 P.M. on CTV and Much Much.

There were a lot of stars but my three favourites were Magic Johnson, Spencer West, and Craig and Mark Kielburger.

All the other stars were great but I picked those three because they were very inspirational. Magic Johnson, a famous basketball player, is fighting Aids, Spencer West climbed Mount Kilimanjaro without any legs, and Craig and Mark created Me to We.  All of them are also very inspirational and I knew about them and I liked them too.

  We Day really changed me and I often think about bullying and how to stand up to stop it.


  By: Balkaran Dhaliwal

More reports from We Day

Here is Harry's report
On October 18, 2012 I went to we day and it was lots of fun. When we got there we had to find our seats and after we found them we sat down. About ten minutes later the show began and I was really excited for it. There were lots of performers there like Demi Lovato, Cody Simpson, One Republic and etc. My favourite band was One Republic. Lots of people came and talked about poverty like Magic Johnson and the Kielburger brothers. They all had very inpiring speeches. I really enjoyed the show, and We Day was really inspiring and if we all work together we can end poverty and BE THE CHANGE.
And from Amita...
On Thursday, October 18, 2012, I went to We Day.  Thousands and thousands of people were there.  First, I was scared that I might get lost but I didn't.  Then we went up the stairs and entered and sat on our seats then the show began.  Lots of famous people came and gave a speech.  In every speech that the famous people gave, they said WE CAN MAKE A CHANGE.  And all those speeches touched my heart especially the one when a little girl came up.  She said if we are one anyone can hurt us and harm us, but if we are together no one can hurt or harm us.  So let's make the change!

We Day

19 students and Ms. Jeram, Ms. King, and Laura attended We Day.  Although it was an early morning all had a great time.  To learn more about We Day and to find out when you can watch the broadcast if you were not one of the lucky ones to attend,  here is the link!  Stay tuned for pictures and more reports!

Here is Rajveer's report on the day!
We Day was a very special day. I had so much fun and I liked it a lot. I think We Day was fun,because of the noise,the singers, and the other special people who came. It was very special because of the inspiring speeches and I also learned a lot from those speeches. My favorite part of the We Day was when Sean Desman, Magic Johnson and the Kielburger brothers spoke. We Day was amazing and it was spectacular.

We Scare Hunger

October 31 to November 8th we will be collecting food for the food bank.  You will be asking people to donate when you trick or treat and we are asking all classes to bring in food.  To find out more about this please go to We Scare Hunger on the  Free the Children website. 

The next big campaign we may want to become involved in is We Create Change  about collecting pennies.  This will enable more people in the world to have access to clean water, one of our most basic needs. 

When you look at these campaigns you will see other campaigns that you may want to do at Trudeau.  You need to come to our meetings with your ideas and your knowledge. 

In less than two weeks Division One raised 600 dollars to help the poor in our city.  It's amazing what you can do! 

End Poverty Day, October 17th

 Here we go starting an exciting new year with our Me to We Club.

To learn more about End Poverty Day here is the information that I received from Trish Garner who is coordinating this day!  What can we do at Trudeau?!

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for getting involved with End Poverty Day, student day of action on October 17, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. We now have 20 schools registered all around the province, from Vancouver to Telegraph Creek! Check out our Google map to see them all
New Resources
As you know, all the resources to support you in hosting your events are online at: http://bcpovertyreduction.ca/support-package-for-end-poverty-day  - I've just added a Take Action flyer that you could print and give out and Poverty Buttons if you have a button maker.

Community speaker
If you're planning an event with speakers and you'd like someone who could talk about the personal experience of living in poverty or an anti-poverty activist in your local community, please let me know and I'll try to match you with one of our community partners.

Media
I'll be sending out a media advisory next week to let the media know about this campaign. If you or any of your students would feel comfortable being interviewed on the day, please let me know. Media always like to talk to the people involved, especially young people, so this would really make a difference. Thanks!

Events
Can you all send me a short paragraph about what you have planned for the day so that I can include that on the Google map and on our website?

For inspiration, here's a flash mob created for Homelessness Action Week last year:

Also, the Welfare Food Challenge, which involves eating on $26 for a week, starts on October 16. The website is now up and running here

Winning Some Fun Science Stuff...

After March Break we have our next fundraiser planned.  It's a raffle.  You can win one of two prizes.  Tickets will be 25 cents each or five for a dollar.  All proceeds will go to our Adopt a Village project!

The first is Potato Chip Science.

 Snack on science! Make a science of snacks! Potato Chip Science is the book and kit that’s an irresistible introduction to science for 8- to 12-year-olds. Here are 29 incredible experiments—plus one edible project—that use potato chips, potatoes, potato chip bags, tubes, and lids. Included in the bag are a 96-page two-color book and a dozen items that kids can use for the following “snacktivities”:

Bag Blaster - Bird Feeder - Chipmobile - Chip Analyzer - Chip-Ship Challenge - Chip-Tube Gobbler - “Color” Wheel - Compass - Composter - Confetti Can-non - CSI Detective Kit - Dancing Chips - Electric Wave - Flipper - Hydrofoil - Kissing Tubes - Kite - Mini Extermi-tater - Potato Bender - Potato Chip Crunchies - Potato Battery - Saucer Tosser - Shrunken (Potato) Head - Signal Mirror - Sound Spinner - Spud Crud - Spuddy Buddy - Walkie-Talkie - Windmill

The second is Pop Bottle Science.

It's pure bottled magic! A complete kit that ingeniously marries science and fun in the breakthrough vein of The Bug Book & Bug Bottle (1.7 million copies in print) and The Bones Book & Skeleton (1.65 million copies in print), Pop Bottle Science presents 79 easy, hands-on experiments that probe the worlds of chemistry, physics, biology, geology, weather, the human body, and even astronomy.

The Pop Bottle bottle is a perfect miniature science lab--see-through, flexible, air-tight when necessary, made out of a durable, shatter-proof plastic and designed with a removable top that doubles as a funnel. The Pop Bottle book is a lively, fully illustrated 96-page guide to astonishment. Each experiment begins with a challenge and ends with an explanation of the scientific principles involved. Kids can design a volcano and watch it erupt. Create a tornado-maker and see how twisters work. Make quicksand--is it solid or liquid? Observe photosynthesis in action. Simulate Jupiter's giant red spot, investigate buoyancy, demonstrate inertia, and discover the Bernoulli principle--which allows planes to fly. Plus, turn the bottle into a barometer, a thermometer, walkie-talkie, trombone, compass--or groovy lava lamp.

Candy-grams

Our school's Me to We group recently had a fundraiser called “Candy-Grams”.

A Candy-Gram is a Valentine's Day card with a Hershey kiss attached to it and you can give to someone special. We sold the Candy-Grams for $0.75 each or 5 for $3.00.  The Candy-Grams were a big hit; we sold about 120 Candy-Grams.

We had a contest between the Me to We group on what illustrations we should put on the cards. The three winners of the Candy-Gram contest were Sarthak, Ramdeep, and Rajwinder.

These are the designs chosen for the Candy-Grams.

We would like to thank everyone who participated in our fundraiser. With your support, we earned $117.54. The money will go to our Adopt a Village Program in Lai Gow, Rajasthan, India.
Written by Sarthak

Alicia Doo visits Trudeau for our Me to We Assembly

Trudeau's Me to We group had an assembly on February 2nd.  This assembly was to introduce to the school our Adopt a Village Program.  A major part of our Me to We assembly was Alicia Doo doing a presentation. Alicia is a Youth Programming Coordinator and Outreach Speaker.  She comes to schools to talk about Free the Children, on how it all started and how it is going now in the present.

Alicia also had some stories of her own. She told us about her trip to Africa. Alicia told us that she had to hike up this huge mountain to get to a village there. When she went to the top, she noticed a lot of differences from their community to hers in Canada. This village had no schools, no place to get clean water, no medical centres for people that get ill etc.

Alicia also noticed that the houses were made of mud bricks instead of real bricks or of wood. Then she noticed this women coming up to them being really happy that Alicia had come. This woman led Alicia and the group of student volunteers to her home. When they got to the destination, Alicia saw all these kids playing that were the woman's children and they all shared the space in this mud house. They all went inside the mud house but to fit in the mud house, they all had to crouch down. The woman started to give Alicia and the tourists the food that she had and her supply of food was very little. Alicia started to realize that there are actually people that need essentials like food, water, health care, and shelter more than anything else.

Later, she met this little boy. He didn't go to school. Instead of getting an education, he worked. He sold gum to tourists so he can earn money for his family, but the people he worked for actually give him very little of the money that he earned. Alicia and this little boy instantly became friends. When she had to leave, this little boy offered to give her a piece of gum. She knew that giving her this gum without payment was actually going to cost a lot because that gum actually contributes to his life so he can have enough money for him and his family. Alicia kept this gum so that she can remember the friendship she had with that little boy in Africa and that inspired her a lot to work for Free the Children. 

     She was a great part of our Me to We assembly. We loved her presentation and all the things she talked about because it inspires our Trudeau Me to We group because we are also here to support all those people in the poor countries.  We can all make a difference in the world with your help.

Written by Chancey and Shubna

A New Year - New Plans

The Me to We Club has exciting plans for the new year.  First up, we have a big assembly February 2nd to kick off our plans.  Check out the link so that you can learn the dance!!! 

Then you will be able to purchase Candy grams to give your valentines that will be delivered to their classrooms.  And everyone is really excited about the talent show!  Stay tuned!!!

After the Vow of Silence

This is a response Rajveer in Div. 2 wrote after participating and after watching this video

"No talking!!!!This video show kids that what happens around the world when kids can't stand up and have to be forced to do something. I was very excited to take the vow of silence.While it was happening I was so tempted to talk.I think other people felt that way too.I also thought how did Balkaran not talk.I think it was very challenging for both of us.It was sooo hard to listen to Ms.Forsyth while we were in gym.  The vow of silence reminded my of a book I read called Speechless because the kid in that book also took a vow of silence.  I think the vow of silence was special because lots of people joined it and we stood up to help the kids that are not allowed to talk."

Poems written during The Vow of Silence...

Silent
No talking
No saying
Forced
Unable
Shushed
No hope
Taken
Happy
Unhappy
Left out
Beaten
Tortured

We can make a difference
Speak up!
End the silence in the world!

by Balkaran

_______________
Silence fills the air
Masks conceal our words
From escaping
The ones who are silent
Don't get freedom
We are silent
That's another world

by Arshpreet

Vow of Silence

We had a very successful Vow of Silence afternoon with over 100 students and teachers participating.  Selling the Vow for Silence masks made a profit of $165 to be used for our Adopt A Village project. Here are a few pictures from the afternoon.

Here is what Gursharan wrote before we did the vow of silence this year.
"This year will actually be my first year in participating in the "Vow of Silence". This has started to become an annual thing. We started this last year, I believe. My friends were participating in this last year. When I was about to buy one, they ran out of masks. I was too late. But judging by my friends and their comments of how hard it was, I had then known how hard it was for those kids  for whom we were staying silent.
 






So, this year, on the first day, I bought a mask. On the first day, forty masks were sold! This year, I am really excited for it because, I want to try my best to keep this Vow of Silence, for those kids who have to be silent, and have no choice. Anyone who buys a mask, is supporting the cause, and is trying to give a voice to those kids who don't have a voice! I hope we have enough masks for our entire school because, because, a lot and I mean a lot of kids want to buy this!! "

This is a comment from Balkaran after completing the Vow of Silence afternoon. 
"Today was the Vow of Silence. I loved seeing people who are talkative, not talking for a change.  I personally think I’m quite talkative so that was pretty hard for me to hush up. I think that the people in the world who have no say are afraid but I am not, and I want to stand up and to end world hunger…The Vow of Silence rocks. I am definitely going to participate next year. The Vow of Silence is so fun and for the people who never participated I hope you will participate next year."

My Thoughts on We Day

      Today, I am here to tell you about how much fun we had at We Day this year on October 13^th . For those who don't know what We Day is , We Day is a fun event that celebrates all the work that the Me to We members did in the past year helping Free the Children fund raise for helping poor children around the world .

     There were lots of people there attending We Day that were from all over BC . Worldwide , the Me to We members helped fund raise for all kinds of people and that helped out a lot . Free the Children gave education to people that don't have any learning experience because they have to work to support their families . In BC, only 60% of Aboriginal students are graduating from high school . They built wells in villages for the children didn't have to walk so far and miss school . Also, the group brought medical care to the people who needed it . We learned about many things Free the Children did for struggling people .

     Also , there were great speakers and performers . Like Mikhail Gorbachev , Liz Murray , Shawn Desman , Down with Webster , Hedley , and a many more . It was great because it really warmed my heart about what they said about what they did to help out the needy kids and how they congratulated us for the time we gave into volunteering for our community . They were all fantastic .

    If you want to see what happened on that day , you can watch it on October 30^th on Much Music and CTV . I hope you enjoyed reading this and I hope you get to watch it on tv . Thank you !

                                                        By : Chancey

We Day!

We day was a awesome experience for al the people that went and I was lucky people that got to go to be there to. We were also lucky to meet Mrs.Wong there. All the great people and the speakers there like Mikhail Gorbachev, Mia Farrow, Spencer West, Marc and Crieg Keilberger, and all the others. We day was a GREAT EXPERIENCE. I loved it at We day and so did everyone else. I loved We Day because it help me understand about how the people that sit on the streets don't have much and it inspires me to help all the people who have less than me. I would like to thank the teachers that took us (Ms. King. Mrs. Jeram, Ms. Heinrichs, Mrs. Forsyth, Mr. Lattimer, and Mrs. Wong for getting us the tickets )

 

By: Michaela.S.

 

These  Paragraphs were writing by: Gurpreet.G., Chancey.V., Manisha.M., and Michaela.S.

We Day

We Day

On October 13, Our school's Me To We group went to, "We Day". It was an inspiring event that featured celebrities and motivational speakers like Shawn Desman, "SHAQ" (Shaquille O'Neal), Hedley, Down With Webster, Freshh, Craig and Mark Kielburger, Mikhail Gorbachev, Spencer West, Mia Farrow, Liz Murray, Jesse Cruickshank, Michel Chikwanine, Waneek Horn-Miller, Jesse Giddings, Robin Wiszowaty and Noah Kaplin, not to mention 18,000 Me To We members!

We Day was made to inspire and celebrate the youth movement for global change. Trudeau has helped make one of these changes because we built a school in India!

If you would like to help, you can check out the official website, www.weday.com to donate money, or if you have Facebook, you can like the We Day page, and just by doing that, you'll be donating a dollar towards the group. (We already have 741,381 likes!)

Quotes from We Day

October 13,2011                                                          

These are some of the many quotes that spoke me:

   “It doesn’t matter what age you are too make a difference in the world.” ~Mia Farrow

 "The change starts within each one of us and ends only when all children are free to be children.”  ~Craig Kielburger                                                                                                                                                                                                    “You probably think it is too far to even make a change. Well, think of where you live, what if it happened there?”~Spencer West

      “We aren’t aware of how we’re changing the world. We just make a small change and it affects the movement. The movement that is We.”~Marc Kielburger

“If not me, who? And if not now, when?”~Mikhail Gorbachev

“If there is anything I believe in it’s that this generation of kids can change the world.”~Craig Kielburger   

By: Manisha.M.
      

We Day 2011

We Day was a awesome experience for all the people that went and I was one of the lucky people that got to be there. We were also lucky to meet Mrs.Wong there. All the great people and the speakers were there like Mikhail Gorbachev, Mia Farrow, Spencer West, Marc and Crieg Keilberger, and all the others. We Day was a GREAT EXPERIENCE. I loved it and so did everyone else.

By:  Michaela.S.

These  paragraphs were written by: Gurpreet.G., Chancey.V., Manisha.M., and Michaela.S.