Former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon, Lily Collins, Connor Franta, Katie Piper, Holly Branson, and More Jo

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Former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, Lily Collins, Connor Franta, Katie Piper, Holly Branson, and More Join WE Day UK to Celebrate Young People Taking Action on Local and Global Social Issues

- Click here to apply for media accreditation to attend WE Day - - WE Day UK streams live at 9:30 a.m. GMT on 7 March at WE.org/watchweday - - WE Day UK is free to thousands of students thanks to partners led by UK Title Supporter Virgin Atlantic -

London, UK (13 February 2018) – WE Day, a powerful day of inspiration celebrating young people creating sustainable change, returns to deliver words of hope and optimism—a message the world needs now more than ever. Today, WE Day announces the initial list of speakers and performers attending WE Day UK on 7 March 2018 at The SSE Arena, Wembley. Alongside partners led by UK Title Supporter Virgin Atlantic, WE Day UK will host 12,000 engaged young people and teachers, and thousands more from all around the world watching live online on WE.org/watchweday, coming together to change the world.

Taking the stage is a cast of compelling speakers, dynamic performers and innovative thought leaders including Holly Branson, Lily Collins, Connor Franta, Kenyan Boys Choir, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, Celebrity Marauders, Katie Piper, The Tenors, Margaret Trudeau, Spencer West and more to be announced. Alongside co-hosts Becca Dudley, Yasmin Evans, and Rosie McClelland, this star-studded line-up will join international activists and WE co- founders, Craig and Marc Kielburger. Together they will share their passion for change and energise the crowd with unforgettable performances and motivational speeches to define a more united world, and what people of all ages can do to make this dream a reality.

"Year after year, I’m endlessly inspired by the young people from around the world that come together for WE Day. From North America to the UK, they’re creating a caring community that stands united and recognizes that it’s okay to be different, and that our differences are what make us beautiful,” said Golden Globe nominated actress and author Lily Collins. “On March 7th, I can’t wait to once again celebrate with the students at WE Day as we continue standing up, speaking out and working towards a kinder tomorrow.”

“I am beyond excited to join over 12,000 young people at my very first WE Day UK, said Katie Piper, best-selling international author, inspirational speaker, TV presenter and charity campaigner. “We all have a choice in how we live our lives—these students and teachers have chosen to give back and help others in their communities and around the world. I am honoured to share my story with them and celebrate their confidence, positivity and trailblazing efforts in the realm of social good.”

More than a one-day event, WE Day is connected to the free, year-long educational programme WE Schools. Providing schools and community groups with curriculum, educational resources and action campaigns, the programme is designed to enhance a school’s existing social initiatives or spark new ones. WE Schools encourages students to further their curricular learning and develop life skills for success beyond the classroom.

In the 2016/2017 school year, schools and groups across the UK helped strengthen their communities through WE Schools, volunteering more than 533,000 hours and raising nearly £1.8 million in support of more than 590 local and global causes including hunger, poverty, the environment and bullying. The Regis School in Bognor Regis are veterans of the WE Schools programme in the UK. Having attended every WE Day UK since the inaugural event in 2014, students are on a mission to inspire other young people to change the world! To share the power of social action, The Regis hosted their own WE Day- style event, inviting over 100 primary school student councilors to come together and learn about doing good. The day united their local and global communities, as students of all ages discovered how one goat can unlock a world of opportunities for families in developing communities. By showing other young

people that they have the power to create transformative change, The Regis School is helping to foster the next generation of compassionate change-makers.

“We are surrounded by young people of the WE generation. A generation that is tuned-in to the needs of their community both locally and globally – it’s truly remarkable. They have committed to choosing hope, optimism, empathy and courage over fear, division, apathy and intolerance,” said Craig Kielburger, co- founder of WE. “During WE Day, we are honoured to celebrate the young people from over 500 schools and youth groups from across the UK, who have joined together to make a difference and prove that you are never too young to help change the world.”

WE Day—the world’s largest youth empowerment event—is free of charge to students and teachers across the UK, thanks to the generous support of partners led by UK Title Supporter Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic believes in empowering young people to build a brighter, more sustainable future. Students can’t buy a ticket to WE Day—young people from across the UK earn their way by the actions they take on one local and one global cause of their choice.

WE Day is supported in the UK by Co-Chairs Lord Rumi Verjee, Founder of The Rumi Foundation and Holly Branson, Trustee, Virgin Unite & Big Change Charitable Trust. Globally by, Dave I. McKay, President and CEO, RBC; David Aisenstat, Chairman, President and CEO, Keg Restaurants Ltd.

The initial list of WE Day UK hosts, speakers and performers in alphabetical order, announced to date includes:

Co-Hosts: Becca Dudley, Yasmin Evans, Rosie McClelland

Speakers: Musharaf Asghar and Mr. Burton, Holly Branson, Nikki Christou, Lily Collins, Connor Franta, Juliet Kaplan, Craig and Marc Kielburger, Ban Ki-moon, Liv Little, Callum Lynch, Hayley Mulenda, Katie Piper, Margaret Trudeau, Spencer West

Performers: Celebrity Marauders, Kenyan Boys Choir, The Tenors

About WE WE Day is part of WE – a family of organisations 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 young people 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 one 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 Virgin Atlantic www.virgin-atlantic.com

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

Emma Talbot Senior Account Executive, EastofEden London 020 3745 6968 [email protected]

Clare Gilbert-Smith Director Marketing and Communications, WE 07872 150535 [email protected]