Katherine’s Me to We Story

In grade seven my life changed and I moved from ME TO WE. It was early spring and I was invited to attend a student social justice retreat day. It was a three-day awareness retreat and the life-changing part of this came when I met a boy by the name of Michel Chikwanine, [a former child soldier].

On the very last day of the retreat I had time to sit down with him. He began to tell me his story. He was only two sentences in before he had me crying.

I cried for two days until a thought popped into my mind and it was something Michel had said in his story which was, “You cannot let stories like mine and other sad stories bring you down. You have to let it be your drive and your inspiration to Be the Change and Take Action.”

That line stuck in my head and at that moment I knew what my reason for living was. My life all began to make sense. Growing up, I had many passions, but when you’re young you don’t really have the opportunity to talk about them. I never knew what to talk about or how to talk about what I felt inside.

Since my retreat I have joined many school teams and clubs, I am involved in many community activities, and I spend many hours planning school events. The Take Action Leadership Academy was just amazing. I learned so much and I met lifetime friends.

The Academy has opened up so many doors for me and everyone else who attended. I now have the knowledge and the self confidence to ACT on my legacy and if it fails the first few times I know that I have over 100 new friends who are there to back me up.

Much Love and Smiles,
Katherine Morin

Jacob Barkey’s Me To We Story

Hi, I'm Jacob Barkey, I'm 15 years old and here's my Me to We story.

Throughout elementary school I was Mr. Popularity, the class clown, the school bully, and at the same time, everyone's best friend. I didn't do it for the fun of it and I didn't do it because it made me feel good. I did all these things because it was expected of me. I felt that no matter what I did - whether I changed my attitude or not - people would always see me as the kid who didn't care.

I remember this one boy who I picked on a lot. He was one grade above me and he was mildly autistic. I called him many things which I will never say to anyone again. I later realized I had done many wrong things and started to smarten up. Anytime I would crack a joke or say something disrespectful about someone, I hated myself for it. What I needed was a new beginning, a clean slate, and some new "friends".

When I started high school I soon found out it was just what I needed. The biggest change for me was when Matt Tod and Giustina D'Elia came to our school and motivated me to help create our Free The Children group called, Me to We where we're currently fundraising for our adopt a village campaign.

My biggest Me to We moment was at the Take Action Academy in Toronto. I met people that were inspired by the same things I was. We spilled out our hearts and minds. Each and every one of us went from Me to We that week. I know that everyone at the Academy will say it was a life changing experience, and that they're stoked to put all of their effort into bringing positivity and love to their schools.

Thank you to all of the facilitators at the Academy. You guys changed my life.

Jacob Barkey
Huntsville High School
Huntsville, Ontario