Craig Kielburger, co-founder of Free The Children talks about why he is at Youthesoo and his experience with empowering youth:

It’s a day that’s a been a year in the making. More than five thousand students from across Algoma attended ‘Youthesoo’ at the Essar Centre on Thursday. It’s an event similar in style to the ‘WeDay’ events in larger Canadian cities — aimed at empowering youth to act locally on a global scale. One of the guest speakers at ‘Youthesoo’ was Free The Children co-founder Craig Kielburger. He says the community should be proud of organizing such an event to encourage young people…

Kielburger says ‘Youthesoo’ is the largest event of its kind that he has attended outside of Toronto. Another guest speaker was Spencer West, who lost both of his legs at the age of five. He has went on to climb and reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro using only his hands and wheelchair. West was inspired to meet youth that are making the world a better place first hand and has been with Free The Children for the last seven years. Student trustees with both the public and catholic school boards, the Huron-Superior Parent Involvement Committee and other groups worked hard over several months to make the event a reality. Kielburger talks about his many years of getting involved with improving the world for everyone…

Kielburger says the main thing the crowd could take away from ‘Youthesoo’ is that you are never too young to act. He mentioned many ideas on how students can get involved. Some examples include ‘We Scare Hunger’ where canned goods are collected during Halloween and ‘We Are Silent’, an anti-bullying initiative where participants take a pledge not to speak for 24 hours. A number of other special guests were on hand to tell their stories of inspiration, aimed at encouraging the crowd to get involved in their community and their world. Sault native and World ParaAlpine Ski Champion Mac Marcoux talks about why he got involved in ‘Youthesoo’…

When asked about whether he thinks this could be an annual event, Marcoux said that his friends have gone to similar events in Toronto and Niagara Falls and added it would be ‘awesome’ if a yearly event were to happen here.

Click below to watch World ParaAlpine Ski Champions B.J. and Mac Marcoux talk about their participation in Youthesoo…