The ME generation, on whole, doesn't want to do anything that isn't instantly gratifying to themselves or of benefit to them.
Look at the Vabariigi Aastapäeva Aktus last Sunday.
Outside of a few men in Meeskoor, scouts, guides and Ellen Valter, the audience was void of the entire younger generation.
People say: That doesn't interest me. It's boring.
Yes... The doers get weary.... criticizm is a demotivator.....

I enjoyed reading about your uplifting experience. I wish that for every Estonian (or fringe Estonian)

Lähme Laulupeole!!

Thank you for your story! It's like a breath of fresh air.

I'm just curious: are you more active now doing Esto things because of the events you experienced or not? What advice would you give other 'fringe' Estos?

In my opinion, The main reason why the "Suur Aktus" on sunday was so poorly attended is because the 24th is perhaps " over celebrated",not that there is apathy.
There was an event on Friday,hosted by EKN, as well as a celebration party for the young people at Tartu College. On Sat. EV was celebrated at Lasteaed followed by "nimed Marmor tahvlil"
Sunday's event was in the middle of all this,because on Monday and Tues nights, EV was celebrated separately by the Estonian Schools and we were also encouraged to go to Toronto city hall for 11;00 for the flag raising on Tuesday.
Kitchener, Hamilton etc. and every other Toronto church celebrated separately over the weekend as did Ehatare, and many clubs.
Perhaps at a time when crowds were an issue this segmentation was necessary, however I would suggest that a more powerful impact next year might be ONE BIG EVENT involving every group, and every esto, rather than hostig +/- 15 little gatherings basically saying and doing the same thing.
Parents are not going to dress their kids or themselves up in rahvariided 3-4 times over a short time frame just to make an appearance everywhere. the older people also probably find it tiring to go to several events. Everyone has simply choosen to go to the ONE that is most convenient or most significant for their family.

Very good point! Great idea! I would suggest that a group like EKN sit down now, while sentiments are fresh, with the leaders of several of the smaller groups and plan this one big event. It would obviously need to take place on a weekend to get more people to come, especially kids. It would be great if we could capture the spirit that Riina Kindlam describes this week in her article 'Märkmik: Virgutav Vastlavabariik'.

Life is diffucult, but where is it written that it has to be easy...Those, who complain about expected to grow up as Estonians yet, not taking this opportunity, have in my opinion nothing worthwhile to say, not at least to me. Estonians stay Estonians, no matter where they live. In our house parents made the choices for children. Learing the language and your cultural heritage should be an honor, not a burden. Maybe I need to explain at this point. A young friend told us, who grew up in Estonia during the communist occuptation,that her father who was a Director of a Wildlife Preservation and had a chance to go to Finland for a seminar. As he was waiting to board a boat, he was informed that his visit was canceled due to fact that he had relatives in United States, who were spies. The eye opener here should be, that the informers were his neighbors. By the way the spy should have been an old aunt who lived in Texas and sent packages once in while. This story is so similar to those I read in the newspapers today. When we have the opportunities, we do not take them and make excuses and worst of all at times our actions betray us and we do not deserve to bask in glory of the free Estonia today. How could we have failed to teach our children that Estonia and it's people were on the brink of genocide.