My Summer as the Intern · Mon été comme stagiaire

Hello! My name is Vivian Walsh and I am The Poison and The Apple’s summer intern. Although I have not yet formally introduced myself on the blog, I have been working with the organization as their social media coordinator for about four months now. It has been a true pleasure to have grown with the organization; to see the content evolve simultaneously with the growing following has been an absolute thrill. I am grateful for this opportunity for I feel that very few opportunities would have provided me with half the experience I have acquired in my short time with The Poison and The Apple because very few organizations would have given me as much autonomy over my work as Sam and Chúk have. With this responsibility, I have been given the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them in a proactive manner. I am so thankful to Chúk and Sam for trusting me with managing their brand identity, I can’t wait to see how the organization continues to evolve.

A little about me: I was born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario. I am currently a student at the University of Ottawa studying Public Relations. I have always felt deeply connected to nature — my soul feels revitalized the moment I stop and acknowledge my natural surroundings, no matter where that may be. In my life, nature, of any form, is therapeutic. Although I constantly crave an escape from my urban dwellings, a walk in the local park always cures my city blues. Because I depend so heavily on nature for my personal wellbeing, protecting natural environments has always been of the utmost importance in my life. The mission of The Poison and The Apple to foster this same sense of responsibility to protect nature among all youth is what initially attracted me to the organization. Reinforcing the relationship between individuals and their natural surroundings is, in my opinion, the only hope for our environment; I have found that only when people feel personally threatened will they act.

This summer while working for The Poison and The Apple, I was granted the opportunity to see areas of the country I had not previously visited. Very soon after starting my position with the organization, we hosted our launch event of Gaia’s Child in Edmonton, which I attended. The trip was a whirlwind — I left Ottawa at 6:00 am on Sunday, May 19th, attended the launch event all day on the 20th of May, and then flew out of Edmonton at 1:00 am that evening. Although the trip was quick, I had SO much fun! I got to explore downtown Edmonton, meet new friends, and assisted in the fantastic launch event of Gaia’s Child! The event had a great turnout and the weather was perfect. It was a thrill to collaborate with the Edmonton and Area Land Trust for their bee workshop, FREE Fitness with their outdoor Bootcamp and the local MEC with their refreshment tent + scavenger hunt! I’m still in awe that this trip even happened — it often feels like a dream. I’m especially thankful to Sam’s sister and her sister’s partner for inviting me to stay in their home during my trip, and to Sam, for inviting me to come.

Nearly immediately after completing the Edmonton launch event for Gaia’s Child, it was time to begin preparing for the Montréal launch event, which occurred in early June. The Montréal event was a much different experience; I stayed alone in a hotel and had more free time than I had in Edmonton. This was my first time traveling completely alone and man oh man did I enjoy myself! It was a whole new experience being able to go anywhere and do anything, whenever I wanted! The first night of the trip I spent on a patio in Old Montreal drinking cocktails*, eating fancy food*, and working on my computer — it was a real ‘treat yourself’ moment and I LOVED it. The event was a great success; we had a survival workshop led by Laura Newman, a bike repair workshop led by MEC, refreshments provided by Chez Robin, and a group run led by Coureurs Montréal. Despite the rain, the event had a fantastic turnout. I quite enjoyed seeing how differently Sam and Chúk ran their respective events but how they were both uniquely successful and fun.

My final excursion of the summer was attending the Proje(c)t Snorkel cleanup in Brantford, ON, which happened in late July. Two of my friends came with me on the trip, one of which was from Brantford and invited us to stay in her parents’ home for the weekend. Friday afternoon we loaded up my mom’s car and headed down the 401 for Brantford. The cleanup happened to be on an extremely hot day, which limited the amount of time we were able to spend actually cleaning up. It was hard to breathe, let alone pick up garbage, but somehow we laughed the whole way through. We collected multiple bags full of garbage and even retrieved two abandoned shopping carts from the shoreline. We were rewarded with pizza, lemonade, and more laughing after the cleanup. The Brantford cleanup had the biggest turnout of Proje(c)t Snorkel’s cleanups and it was a blast! It’s been an absolute delight working with both Taylor and Curtis this summer. I admire how they always maintained an optimistic outlook and were extremely diligent throughout the entirety of their project; it is because of their consistent hard work that the project was such a success.

I am so thankful that I get to extend my internship with The Poison and The Apple for another four months. In a time when the global political landscape is a terrifying dichotomy between acknowledging/acting on the climate crisis and perpetuating the climate crisis, while we all watch our most vital natural lands burn and our planet chokes on the waste of our consumerism, I feel empowered working for an organization with the goal of mobilizing youth to resist and fight for necessary change. I’m excited to see just what a united front of youth can accomplish for this country and the world at large.

**this evening was not funded by the organization.