For the second year in a row a group of students from St. Paul Academy and Summit School traveled to the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul to participate in We Day. The event on Nov. 11 celebrated community service. The day was filled with a lineup of inspirational speakers and celebrities who came together to get teens excited about doing service and helping their communities.

Usually members of SPA’s Community Action and Service student group attend the event; this year students who completed a required number of volunteer hours were allowed to participate. The event hosted celebrity speakers including Magic Johnson and Martin Sheen but despite the big names, students were generally unimpressed with the event.

“I was disappointed with We Day; it was more about asking for money, self advertisement and self promotion than inspiring change,” junior Cait Gibbons said.

Junior Liz Shaheen agrees: “The event was filled with constant advertisements for the Free the Children organization, most of them involving buying their products or going on their service trips. The entire day felt like a promotion event and simply praising ourselves rather than focusing on issues facing our world,” she said .

Gibbons drafted a letter to the We Day organization about her dissatisfaction with the event and awaits a response.