WE Day UN Celebrates With Sarah Michelle Gellar, Darren Criss, Nas, And More!

On Wednesday, September 26 thousands of local students and educators descended on Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York for the second annual WE Day UN. The youth empowerment event returned to New York to celebrate youth and educators from across the Tri-State area. Taking place during the conclusion of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), WE Day UN is held in partnership with UN Women, UNAIDS and UN Global Compact. WE Day UN celebrates the year-round local and global acts of service taken by thousands of students from across the region.

More than a one-day event, WE Day is connected to the free, yearlong program WE Schools. Designed to enhance a school or community's existing social initiatives or spark new ones, WE Schools provides participants with curriculum, educational resources and action campaigns, encouraging students to further their curricular learning and develop life skills to succeed beyond the classroom. In the 2017/2018 school year, over 5,000 U.S. schools and groups volunteered over 5 million hours and collected 3.5 million lbs. of food for local shelters through WE Schools. In the Tri-State area alone, students collected more than 97,000 lbs. of food for local shelters, and volunteered over one million hours, with a passion for taking action on causes including homelessness, food security, the environment, education and access to clean water.

Hosts Sofia Carson (also performed), Skai Jackson, Angie Martinez, Jenna Ortega; Performers Darren Criss, Nas, Jordan Smith; Speakers and Presenters Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jacob Tremblay, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Madame Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, Princess Beatrice of York, Martin Luther King III, March for Our Lives co-founders John Barnitt and Cameron Kasky, Monique Coleman, Laurie Hernandez, Kendrick Sampson, Luna Blaise, David Robinson, Democratic Nominee for the 14th Congressional District of New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, R.J. Palacio, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Juan Manuel Santos, Spencer West, Ebro Darden, Ingrid Nilsen, R3hab, Esera Tuaolo, Clare Morneau, Hebh Jamal, Jaylynn Cortes, Sparsh Shah, Karina Perez, Haile Thomas, Celebrity Marauders and The Clovers.

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 2,500+ 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 1,500 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.