It's all about We

I spent yesterday celebrating We Day with 16,000 of my closest friends at the ACC.

We Day, if you don't know, is the brainchild of those uber energetic Kielburger kids.

Craig Kielburger started the organization Free the Children when, as a boy of barely twelve, he read a newspaper article about a child his own age who'd been forced into child labour and brutally murdered. His brother Mark is no less impressive. He's a Rhodes scholar and counts a couple of honourary doctorates to his name.

Their parents must be back-slapping each other a million times a day at the thought of spawning two kids with such extraordinary humanitarian leanings.

Both boys are hovering around thirty now, which is posing an interesting dilemma for an organization that hinges on being run by and for youth.

The philosophy of the Me to We Movement, which the Kielburgers champion, is quite simply this: if you stop thinking about yourself for a change and channel your energy into the greater good, there's no telling what we can accomplish together.

What they're saying isn't new, but it's never really been packaged in this way and delivered to youth in exactly this fashion.

I like to think of it as Buddhism Light. Social activism with a little Oprah, Degrassi and Jonas Brothers thrown in for good measure.

Yesterday's We Day was the biggest one yet.

I was there the first year, but missed last year, so I was astonished at how large it has become. And I have to say that I'm growing just a titch concerned about corporate involvement.

Fancy that, an advertiser growing concerned about corporate involvement!

The event -- which lasted from about 9 to 3 -- featured a series of inspirational speakers and a few (too few, if you ask me) musical acts and entertainers.

The thing is -- and this is where I'm growing concerned -- is that every one of the major sponsors got a few minutes to address the kids with their own Me to We message.

So Heather Reisman got a change to let the throngs know that they could buy Elie Weisel's book at Indigo, the book store chain that she owns. And a few other profiteers got to deliver their own messages while their logos were projected bright and large on the jumbo screen behind them.

I don't know about the kids, but I was beginning to feel that a large part of this event seemed to be designed to appease the sponsors.

Look, I know that it's REALLY expensive to put on an event like this. And I know that it's virtually impossible without the partnership of caring companies, but...bigger isn't necessarily better.

While most of the sponsors seemed to be nice people, genuinely interested in doing some social good, I'm not sure there particular brand of philanthropy was really suited for a group of high schoolers.

It was as fair as pre-Christmas toy advertising to the Saturday morning cartoon set.

The high schoolers responded to the "real" leaders -- the Pinball Clemens and Elie Weisel's who, despite their age, matched the youth in their energy, enthusiasm and open-heartedness.