Issaquah High, Pine Lake Middle School Students Head to 'We Day' to Recognize Community Service

Students from Issaquah High and Pine Lake Middle School are among the thousands of young people expected at We Day in Seattle on Wednesday for a star-studded program.

The youth-empowerment event is a program by the Canadian-based nonprofit group Free The Children, founded by Craig Kielburger when he was just a kid himself. It is designed to show kids positive approaches to life and ways to set themselves free by helping others.

The KeyArena event Wednesday, which runs from 9:15 a.m. to 2 p.m., will be streamed live at http://www.weday.com/ starting at 9:15 a.m.

The 15,000 kids who will attend the event--from some 380 schools in more than 100 districts statewide--have already been selected, based on their own service work for both local and global causes. They include students from Sammamish and Issaquah — including two Sammaish students Grace Adler and Celia Wu, who are headed to Ghana this June for volunteer work.

Pine Lake Middle School is having a fundraising kick-off assembly a couple of days before We Day Seattle, and one girl there started a group on her own already, raising $6,000 to support education in India.

Issaquah High students are participating in domestic campaigns for American Cancer Society and have raised more than $7,000 by selling pink T-shirts and putting on a pink fireworks show. Their global campaign is for Charity Water, raising almost $10,000 to build two wells through coin drives. They also have a campaign for the Special Olympics where special needs students and varsity players play games together.

Students, how do you perform service to your community? Adults, how can we inspire youth to give back to their communities? Tell us in the comments.