Tyrese Gibson, Hannah Simone, Henry Winkler take it to church at We Day dinner

Tyrese Gibson grew up in the wrong part of town, around too many drugs and gangs to be successful. Henry Winkler barely graduated from high school. And Paula Abdul was a preemie with learning disabilities who was way too short to be a cheerleader — but she made it as a Laker Girl anyway after getting two rejections on the same day.

She simply used three wardrobe changes and three names so she could get a third chance to audition. Because, as she said Wednesday evening at the Beverly Hilton, in her world, “no” is just the beginning of a negotiation.

Those three, along with host Hannah Simone, were among the many stars and sponsors at a celebration and kickoff dinner the night before the We Day event hit Los Angeles to deliver a message of youth empowerment and leadership.

We Day is connected to a yearlong service program that, according to its parent organization, “nurtures compassion in young people, giving them the tools to create transformative social change.”

Winkler, who like the others would be on stage in front of 16,000 kids at the Forum event the next day, was the first speaker to take the crowd to church with a preview of his We Day speech.

After rattling off his plentiful credentials — actor, producer, director, author, husband, grandfather — he added, “And I am in the bottom 3% academically in America.”

He said one teacher told him, “‘Winkler, if you ever do get out of high school, you’ll be OK.’ That was the only kind thing a teacher said to me. ... I took that sentence and I held it in my heart.”

Winkler flunked out of every class, he said, and was punished, humiliated and grounded, but eventually got that diploma. And what did he learn from it all?

“We are not defined by the way we learn,” said the actor, who has guest-starred on “New Girl” with Simone. “The way we learn has nothing to do with the brilliance that is inside. I tell every child that I meet, whether they want to hear it or not, they have power, they have greatness inside them and their job is to find out what their gift is, dig it out and give it to the world, because there is not one adult in their life, in their city, in their state, in our country, who cannot wait to see who they become. And it does not matter how they did in school as long as they are a good human being on this Earth.”

Preach it, Fonzie.

The energy only went up from there, including performances from Nelly Furtado and Revelation Avenue, a choir featured on “Britain’s Got Talent.”

Event co-founder Craig Kielburger got everyone fired up, and along the way Simone told a story about her own youthful efforts to give back when she was 14 and lived in India, where Kielburger and his older brother, her fellow Canadians, were doing humanitarian work as well.

“Three years ago,” she said, “I found myself at my first We Day in Seattle, heard their story. ... I just put all the pieces together and realized that was the same boy.”

As the evening wound down, Gibson chatted for a bit with 10-year-old motivational speaker Ezra Frech, who’d blown away the audience with his presentation and now maybe wanted a cool selfie with the “Fast & Furious” star. Of course, a mini photo shoot ensued.

“There’s a huge gap between public speaking and conviction,” Gibson said, leading into a conversation about how Ezra could look to the future and frame his passion to do even more than he was doing already, perhaps harnessing ideas and turning them into a career. The charismatic kid took it all in as his parents stood nearby.

Ezra has been a public speaker since he was in preschool. He loves basketball and thinks of himself as an athlete first. Then he thinks of himself as a kid whose left leg was amputated below the knee shortly after he was born and whose left big toe was transplanted to give him two fingers on his left hand instead of the single one he was born with.

In Gibson’s speech, which followed Ezra’s, the actor had explained that being raised in South L.A., as he was until age 19, is “another sort of handicap” because of the constant presence of gangs, drugs and friends going to jail, and cautioned those in the room not to get “so comfortable with being blessed” that they forget about others’ struggles, especially children’s struggles. Then he praised everyone for their work and contributions to We Day and the Free the Children international charity.

“There are kids who will never be able to shake your hand,” Gibson said, “and tell you thank you for changing their lives. I’m here to speak for them. Because that was me.”

On Thursday, those celebs joined Charlize Theron, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Amandla Stenberg, Big Sean, Seth Rogen, Zooey Deschanel, Max Greenfield, Lamorne Harris, Joe Jonas, Darren Criss, “The Voice” winner Jordan Smith and many more famous faces who made it to We Day 2016 at the Forum in Inglewood. There, thousands of children who’d earned a ticket through charitable efforts got a day of performances and motivational speeches that — if they were anything like those on Wednesday night — were nothing if not inspirational.

Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ. Follow the Ministry of Gossip @LATcelebs.