Some Merritt students say they’re inspired after they attended We Day, a motivational and educational event that seeks to inspire youth to actively participate in their communities, in Vancouver on Oct. 18.

The event is put on by international charity Free the Children and features guest speakers and concert performances in an arena atmosphere.

Merritt Secondary students Keisha Anderson, Kevin Keyser and Trevor Reed were among Merritt’s two dozen students (from MSS and Collettville) who took the day trip to Rogers Arena for the annual event. About 20,000 youth from across the province earned their tickets to the event by committing to one local and one global Free the Children cause.

The students heard speeches from dozens of speakers, including former Secretary-General of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Laureate Kofi Annan, Free the Children co-founders Craig and Marc Kielburger, and visually impaired student Molly Burke, who spoke of her experience standing up to bullies.

Anderson, who is also visually impaired, said that was one of her favourite presentations.

“She was blind and she was bullied really badly,” the Grade 9 student said. “She talked about how she stood up through it and pushed people through it.”

It was Keyser’s fourth time attending the event, and one the Grade 12 student said he hopes he can continue attending as a volunteer once he graduates.

“For some people, if they go do the same thing year after year after year, it gets less good. But for me, it’s still exactly the same. It’s always inspiring to me,” he said.

It was Grade 12 student Trevor Reed’s second time attending the event, and he said he wants to return as a “crowd pumper” for the event in the future. Reed added he hopes to see students in the future take the opportunity to attend We Day and to be actively involved with Free the Children campaigns.

“I hope people actually get the message, and not just use it as a free concert,” Reed said.

The event is intended to motivate youth to recognize their potential to inspire social change locally and internationally.

All three of the students agreed the event left them inspired to continue in their community volunteer work.

“That’s it in a nutshell: it’s inspiring,” Reed said.

“Most of all, it was very motivational. Every person who helps the community helps the globe. Just standing up to bullies and helping other people do that for themselves is really important,” Anderson said. “Don’t just sit by and expect things to happen by themselves, because they’re not going to.”

Between the three of them, the students said they left Vancouver feeling committed to their voluntarism, which has included Smart Step, student council, Big Brothers and in community events.

This was the fourth year that MSS organized the day trip for its students to We Day.

Tonight, the MSS students are taking part in Free the Children’s We Scare Hunger campaign, which sees volunteers collect donations for local food banks. The students will spread out to cover the city, trick or treating for non-perishable food items for the Nicola Valley and District Food Bank.

Anderson also volunteers at the food bank, so she’s aware of how the donations impact the community.

“I’ll probably be in there, putting away the stuff,” she said.