Thursday, October 16, 2008

Me to We Day: part 1

This Friday is a big day for the Toronto-based children's rights organization Free the Children. After the incredible success of the first ever National Me to We Day in 2007, they've decided to do it again and will be playing host to over 7500 youth for a day of inspiration and motivation.

Free the Children is a non-profit organization that aims to help the world's children on both a local and global level. What we see with Me to We Day is both a method of working with local children to encourage global citizenry, but the large scale of the event also draws public attention to the organization and what it does.

Me to we Day is a great example of various arms of public relations coming together to create one excellent event. Taking a closer look at the day itself we can see the utilization of various PR skills such as event planning, fundraising, media relations and third party endorsement to name a few. Staff from both Free the Children and a sister organization called Leaders Today work tirelessly with hundred of volunteers to put on the day-long event. In getting the word out, organizers have made use of their relationship with newspaper,The Toronto Star (Free the Children founding brothers, Craig and Marc Kielburger publish weekly articles in the paper on global issues). Last year the paper dedicated an entire section to the event! Along with a variety of relevant and motivation speakers, other guest of interest to the target audience such as MTV personalities and musical guests appear on stage.

Yours truly will be attending Me to We Day as a volunteer tomorrow. Check back in the days to follow for an evaluation of this years event!

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