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Rimbey high school students form WE group

High school students take on positive roles
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Rimbey Grade 12 students Joda Snyder, Indiana Jones and Alice Hehli were among the students who attended a WE Day at the Saddledome in Calgary recently. Photo submitted

Rimbey Junior Senior High School has joined the WE movement this year, with the formation of a new school leadership group. The group, consisting of grade seven to twelve students, is committed to working together to make change. With a local and a global action goal, students meet once a week to “shift from “me” thinking to “we” acting”.

The group has selected many purposeful projects to work on over the year. As a celebration of that work, the group recently participated in WE Day at the Saddledome in Calgary, a celebration with big names and powerful messages.

On the bus ride home, many students shared their thoughts on the day. Comments included the appreciation of being able to get to know each member of the group better, being in a stadium with like-minded and open-minded people, feeling confident in being themselves, and just taking in the experience. Here is another student reflection on the day:

By Chelsey Johns

As a young person, I feel like it is hard to feel significant in such a big world when you are only so small. At Rimbey Junior Senior High School, a WE group was recently created designed to show youth that they are significant and they hold the power to change the future of our world, through very small everyday acts or creating long term goals to better another life.

WE day is a day where groups like ours from all across the country can come together to celebrate Generation WE, a generation full of world changers, creators, and the open minded. This year, twenty four students from RJSHS and our teacher, Mrs. MacEachern, attended WE Day at the Saddledome in Calgary. To kick off this year’s WE Day, the founders of WE talked a little bit about themselves and their visions. I really appreciated the fact that the founders, Craig and Mark Kielburger, were adults, who as young children saw an opportunity to make a change, and did. They talked about headlines and how it can be so hard to avoid negative headlines in world news. It’s everywhere, and it can really take a toll on someone’s emotions and overall mental state and WE is meant to combat that. Whether it is a simple act of kindness like shoveling sidewalks during the long winters or working towards building a school overseas, through WE, anything is a manageable goal.

WE Day, and WE group itself, has given me such a strong sense of purpose. It has made me realize that all of the negativity in our world can be shifted to positivity and growth. As a society, I feel as though we seem to acknowledge the bad over the good. As a part of the upcoming generation that will soon shape society, I have high hopes for the world: a world moving from hate to love, a world moving from war to peace, a world moving from fear to optimism. WE gives me a chance to share my ideas and have a voice that will play a part in the world.

The youth from Rimbey Junior Senior High School enjoy the idea of being part of something bigger; taking their own struggles and together forging a powerful idea from it! The members of our WE group like the individuality that comes with being in WE. The acceptance of each other is what makes our generation that much more powerful and recognizing our differences gives us our power. I believe that this group from Rimbey will work towards creating an even stronger sense of community in our town and in our school. I look forward to the future of this group, and the future of our world.

The Me to WE Group at RJSHS meets every Monday at lunch in Mrs. MacEachern’s room. Any students interested in joining our group are always welcome. It is never too late to join and make a difference.