Volunteers Change the World

Know anyone who has changed the world by volunteering? 

How about Craig Kielburger?  He’s a Canadian activist for the rights of children and he started his organization, Free The Children, when he was only 12 years old.  It started with 11 of his friends and now it has more than one million young people involved in programs in 45 countries.

Or what about the two students in Nova Scotia that wore a pink t-shirt to school to confront a single bullying situation, and turned it into a national phenomenon?  David Shepherd and Travis Price saw a grade 9 student getting bullied because he was wearing a pink shirt.  The next day, they distributed pink shirts to their fellow classmates and the result was a sea of pink, showing support for that young student and solidarity against bullying.  February 23 has been known as Anti-Bullying Day in Canada for years, but now it’s also known as "Pink Shirt Day".

Pretty incredible, eh?

Volunteer Cambridge is encouraging all youth in our community to help Change the World by volunteering for 3 hours during the Ontario Youth Volunteer Challenge - April 10 & May 1, 2011.  The goal is to get 10,000 Ontario youth to volunteer and log their hours toward a provincial total!

The Youth Challenge has been around since 2008, starting as a one week pilot during National Volunteer Week where over 900 youth volunteered.  In 2009, that number rose to 8,500 youth, and in 2010, it rose even higher to 11,328 youth - that’s 41,683 hours!