Back in 1991 I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar… well, that much isn’t true, actually. It was a casse croûte in Montréal. Starting at 6 AM every day I’d whip up bacon and eggs and crack open a case of Labatt 50 for the construction workers who preferred to kick-off their day with a beer, not coffee.
After the steel-toed crowd booted out of this greasy spoon, the locals would come in for their $3.25 breakfast. It was during this time that I met the members of Ecologie St. Henri – a diverse group of women who were taking action to clean up the parks and green the school yards in one of Canada’s poorest postal codes – my neighbourhood.
When they asked me to volunteer with them I was thrilled. I wasn’t just a short-order cook anymore, I was now a social activist, too. And I guess I was pretty good at it because the City of Montréal asked me to develop and deliver a series of talks for elementary school kids about the value of the urban environment and recycling. To this day I still consider that one of the most terrifying jobs I’ve ever done. And, it set me on my career path.
Between then and today I’ve completed a degree in Communication Studies at Concordia University… made a couple of documentary films and worked as an editor on several short films… helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for arts & culture and social justice organizations… and worked in senior communications positions with leading Canadian environmental and communications charities. I loved the work I was doing but I could never fully commit to any one cause – they all seemed so important!
So, in 2001 I gave up the pay cheque world to become a communication consultant and freelance writer.
Since those nerve-wracking days facing classrooms of thirty 8-year-olds with a bucket of recycling and a small garden in hand, I’ve developed dozens of workshops and delivered over 150 sessions to people who work and volunteer with a wide range of not-for-profits in places as far north as White Horse and as far south as Sri Lanka.
In addition to workshop facilitation, I’m a writer for hire, having written story-based (and other) communication materials for dozens of not-for-profit organizations, socially progressive companies and even a couple of government departments. I was the health columnist for sharedVISION until that magazine went on hiatus. I’m currently working on my first book.
(By the way, I still cook eggs a few mornings each week. But now, instead of serving them with beer, it’s juice and hot chocolate for my regular customers – Liam, my 13-year old son, and Marcus, my 8-year old step-son.)