Today I arrived at my internship around 11:30AM. It’s Saturday, the trains are running with delays – and so am I. I am not usually a morning person, so my punctuality hasn’t been the best. I’m not proud of it, but it is something that I am constantly trying to improve.

My supervisor, Lisa and Natalie are out of the office today, so Roxanne (Print Coordinator + excellent baker) and Carol (Volunteer Coordinator) are holding down the fort. I was accompanied by two interns and we were simply working on holiday card designs, as well as brainstorming about illustrations for the new articles that were written for the upcoming magazine.  

Suddenly, in walks Dave, a volunteer that signed up from our literary table at City Tech. Usually when a new volunteer visits for the first time, Lisa does an orientation and explains a little bit of the history and the organization’s mission and goals. However, since they were out, we had to improvise and so Roxanne assigned me the task of teaching Dave how we use Adobe InDesign to design the magazine and basic layout formats.

I introduced Dave to the basic tools and functions of InDesign. I also did a few examples of how some worked. After doing my best, I left him to get the hang of it, and he did an awesome job of designing a simple flyer. The majority of the morning half-day was very low-key. 

At 1:30PM we got the usual call from the local restaurant deli that donates food every Saturday. Roxanne took her van and Dave volunteered to help the the food pick up, along with another intern. The deli makes amazing food and we’re so gracious that they donate the extra leftovers. Usually the menu includes: rice, bbq chicken, meatballs, mashed potatoes, chicken wings, soup, muffins, bread rolls and fruit. On occasions, they’ll switch it up and make pasta, noodles or meatloaf. It’s always a buffet. All this food usually lasts us the entire week. And as usual, we’ll all eat together and have our “lunch-chat” about political/news topics or just about anything interesting. 

I remember on my first day at WPC I assisted Lisa with lunch pick-up. After seeing how everything was dealt with and the sitting-around-the-table-family-like -lunch that takes place, I was instantly drawn to the organization. I loved how everyone conversed and shared stories at that moment. This gave me a chance to really get to know the people that I volunteer with. 

That Saturday, I stayed until Roxanne and Carol closed the office, which was 4:30PM.