WE Day Unites Young Change-Makers in Texas With

Home , Rico Rodriguez (actor)

WE Day Unites Young Change-makers in Texas with Special Guests, Pat and Emmitt Smith, Ann Curry, Ally Brooke, Rico and Raini Rodriguez, Jack & Jack, and more - Bios, photos and information for WE Day Texas available on the Electronic Press Kit - - WE Day Texas streams live at 9:30 a.m. CDT on March 20, 2018 on WE.org/watchweday - - WE Day is free to thousands of students thanks to partners led by National Co-Title Sponsor The Allstate Foundation -

Garland, TX (March 20, 2018) – Today the world’s largest youth empowerment event, WE Day, comes to Texas for the first-time in celebration of young people committed to making a difference. Over 8,000 students and educators from across the state will pack the Curtis Culwell Center for a powerful, life- changing experience featuring renowned speakers, innovative thought leaders and celebrity performers including homegrown talents Ally Brooke of Fifth Harmony and global motivational speaker Lizzie Velasquez, along with Pat and Emmitt Smith, news journalist Ann Curry, hit pop duo Jack & Jack, ventriloquist and season 12 winner of America’s Got Talent Darci Lynne, U.S. Olympian Laurie Hernandez, and more. WE Day Texas is co-hosted by NBC’s This Is Us actor Lonnie Chavis, singer/songwriter Johnny Orlando along with Texas natives Rico and Raini Rodriguez. Joined by international activist and WE Day co-founder, Craig Kielburger, the exciting lineup will share their passion for change, energize the crowd and motivate young people to continue to take action on pressing issues to affect positive change in their communities and around the world.

“The greatest hope for the future of humanity is the fierce moral clarity of our youth,” said television personality and news journalist, Ann Curry. “It is a true joy to help encourage their dream of a better world, which I know will come true.”

A catalyst to support the movement of young people leading change, WE Day is a series of 19 stadium- sized events held across the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and the Caribbean. This past year, more than 200,000 students from over 10,000 schools attended WE Day events, alongside thousands who watched online and millions more who viewed two national North American TV broadcasts.

More than a one-day event, WE Day is connected to the free, yearlong educational program WE Schools, which launched in Texas in 2017 and now engages over 340 schools across the state. The program is designed to enhance a school’s existing social initiatives and provide curriculum, educational resources and service-based learning campaigns. WE Schools encourages students to further their learning and develop life skills for success beyond the classroom.

Speakers and performers at WE Day Texas will energize the crowd through a day full of powerful performances and inspiring speeches. A few must-see highlights include:

 Pat and Emmitt Smith, co-founders of Pat & Emmitt Smith Charities, are joined on stage by two youth participants in the charity’s TEAM 22 program to share a message of the importance of giving back  Television personality and news journalist, Ann Curry delivers a key note speech, sharing how empathy for others guided her to purpose in her career and in life  Siblings Rico Rodriguez, actor from the hit television series Modern Family, and Raini Rodriguez, singer and actress on Disney® Channel’s Austin & Ally, are joined on stage by students from Sharpstown High School in recognition of their efforts to provide relief to support those impacted by Hurricane Harvey  Singer, songwriter and member of Fifth Harmony Ally Brooke, joined by DJ Topic, closes out the show with her newly released single Perfect

“Today we celebrate remarkable students who are part of the WE generation—young leaders from across Texas who have committed to creating change at home and around the world,” said Craig Kielburger, co-founder of WE. “With the support of their incredible teachers, these students joined together in support of local and global organizations, affecting countless lives just this year alone. WE Day Texas celebrates their world-changing achievements and inspires another year of working together towards positive impact.”

WE Day is free of charge to students and educators across the U.S. thanks to the generous support of partners led by National Co-Title Sponsor The Allstate Foundation. Through its Good Starts Young® initiative, The Allstate Foundation empowers America’s youth with the strength, confidence and skills to step us as leaders and achieve success in their lives.

WE Day is supported in Texas by Co-Chairs Jan Miller, Founder and CEO Dupree, Miller & Associates; Jeff Rich, Co-Founder, Plumtree Partners; Emmitt and Pat Smith, co-founders of Pat & Emmitt Smith Charities; and Matthew and Jessica Upchurch, Chairman and CEO, Virtuoso. Nationally, WE Day is supported by Co-Chairs Tom Wilson, Chairman and CEO, Allstate; Jane Francisco, Editorial Director of Hearst Lifestyle Group and Editor in Chief of Good Housekeeping; Brett Tollman, CEO, The Travel Corporation; Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever; Steve Robinson, CEO and Founder, Zilliance; and Janet Crown, CEO, Burn 60 Studios.

About WE WE Day is part of WE—a family of organizations making doing good, doable. WE is made up of WE Charity, empowering domestic and international change, ME to WE, a social enterprise that creates socially conscious products and experiences to help support the charity, and WE Day, filling stadiums around the world with the greatest celebration of social good. WE enables youth and families to better the world – supporting 7,200+ local and global causes by volunteering millions of hours of service, shopping daily with an impact, and raising millions of dollars that directly benefit their local communities and the world. Globally, WE teams in Asia, Africa, and Latin America have provided more than 1 million people with clean water, built 1,000 schools and schoolrooms overseas, and empowered more than 200,000 children with access to education. WE was founded more than 20 years ago by social entrepreneurs, brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger. Join the movement today at WE.org.

About The Allstate Foundation www.allstatefoundation.org/goodstartsyoung

###

For more information of WE Day or to request an interview, please contact:

Kendra Thompson Associate Director, Public Relations, WE Day +1-647-607-9564 [email protected]

Reem Jazar Manager, Public Relations, WE Day +1-647-269-3292 [email protected]