All In a Day’s Work…

When Oraia and Erin hired me as the summer intern for RightRides, I was thrilled to pack my bags and leave my native Toronto for a summer adventure, fighting sexual violence in the Big Apple! It’s only been a few weeks, but in that short time I’ve discovered Brooklyn and become an entrenched Brooklynite (shout out to South 9^th and Bedford!), saw the Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, been to so many free concerts and events, and have spent hours looking for the best and cheapest sushi place in the Five Boroughs (I’m still looking if you’d like to help…)

I’ve also had a crash course about the inner, everyday workings of RightRides from Erin, and have jumped in feet first, learning and helping in any way I can. The first two weeks I focused entirely on RightRides’ newest program, the Community Action News Network. CANN is going to be a great way to reach out to high school students and young people, letting them speak with their own voices through short video pieces addressing the causes, effects and atrocities of gender-based violence.

This is a program I’m really excited about because of my own experience with video; in 2006, I was lucky enough to get to go to Zambia with 10 fellow students and make a documentary about the lives of teenagers there. Not only did I learn an immense amount about development and humanity from studying the content of the film and meeting people with mind-boggling courage and intelligence, but for the first time I felt empowered as an activist. It’s a great feeling which I hope will be felt by our CANN creators.

I did a lot of research, made a lot of calls- I even made a YouTube video (how embarrassing!)- and now have some great women on CANN’s Advisory Board. Some have a background in media advocacy, some in film and television production, some in education, some are youth advisors, but all have committed their time and expertise to CANN, and I’m very excited for our first meeting, where I’ll get to be in a room filled with amazing people! And, of course, we’ll start creating the CANN curriculum with the decades of collective field experience that these women have.

While I’m gearing up for the first CANN Advisory Board meeting, I’ve also been working on other things. I just finished revamping our Dispatcher and Volunteer Manuals (with a little help from Word Art, thank you very much) and I hope my acute sense of grammar has contributed something. I’m also helping to get donations from businesses for the RightRides Social’s Silent Auction (September 18^th at The Delancey, details to follow), and I won’t give anything away BUT, trust me, you want to be there. The deals will be as good as the like-new condition, black suede Ferragamo power-heels I just snagged for $50 (if that’s even possible- I love New York!)

I also went out in the field, so to speak, and hit the streets in a ZipCar Prius with RightRides volunteer extraordinaire Toby a few Saturday nights ago. I saw so much more of the city than I had managed to see in the previous few weeks! We went over several bridges several times, driving people from Williamsburg to Sunset Park, from the Bowery to Park Slope… I was the Navigator, but luckily (for everyone involved) Toby knew the streets of NYC’s Five Boroughs off the top of his head- I’ve got a terrible sense of direction but was unafraid; I was armed with many maps from our nifty Team Gold (or which color were we?) bag, and in constant contact with the Dispatcher Rachel, who was ready to track us through the GPS in our RightRides phone and show us the way from her computer! I must admit though, we missed a turn off and almost ended up in Long Island because I was engrossed in a conversation with our Riders, but they were very gracious anyways, and we got them home in plenty of time to get back to Chelsea and return the car before the 4.30 a.m. deadline. Plus, I had a great excuse to sleep in until noon on Sunday and go out for brunch- I had just spent all night saving the world! One safe ride home at a time…