Personal Narrative Essay - The Power of One personal narrative essays

The Power of One

One evening in 1996, Craig Kielburger was scheduled to deliver a speech before the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) convention in Toronto. Armed with stories and facts about the plight of child workers around the world, Kielburger planned to talk about his mission to bring an end to child labor.

As Kielburger took the stage, squinting slightly from the glare of the spotlights, amusement rippled through the crowd of 2,000 when they saw that his head barely cleared the podium - until someone brought him a stepstool. But the laughter soon turned to curiosity and, when he began to speak, to admiration.

"According to the International Labour Organization, there are more than 250 million working children. That's equal to the entire population of the United States," he said, shoving aside his notes as he gestured emphatically, his clear, green eyes appearing to take in each member of the audience. "No one has a good excuse for ignoring this problem."

The audience periodically interrupted his talk with applause, and no one seemed to notice that he'd gone well over his scheduled time. When he finished, the audience rose to their feet, wildly clapping their hands. As the applause finally began to wane, a member of the OFL briefly grabbed the microphone to announce that the organization would be granting a surprise donation of $5,000 to Kielburger's organization, Free the Children, for the purpose of building a rehabilitation center for child laborers in India. That gesture was soon matched by many of the other organizations present. At the end of the evening - an evening in which Free the Children had merely intended to raise awareness that child labor did indeed exist - Kielburger had raised $150,000 for the cause.

He was 12 years old.