Part VIII: Pitches and School Aged Children

I had one of those days today, one of those great days were nothing seems to go wrong and all you want to do is look and the mirror and go YES! Then give yourself a big hug and fist bump your reflection.

We all love the beach. Face it, there isn't anyone who doesn't like looking out over the water, squinching the sand in their toes and smelling the salty water. It's manna for the soul. The beaches along the St-Lawrence are great, which is a continual surprise to me. When I think St-Lawrence and beach images of the banks of the Chateauguay River come to mind, the beach of debris under the Mercier Bridge. Unappealing to say the least.

Today some of the Parks Canada superteam, myself included, did a beach clean up. Twist: with elementary school students. Sounds terrible, but was surprisingly fun. We showed up at a school in Les Escoumins and had a little chat with the kids about plastics in the ocean and how birdies and fishies think that it is food and try to eat it. Result: gore and horror in the high seas!!!! (Insert wicked laugh here)

Accompanied by grades 5 and 6, I headed out to the vista of water bottles, chip bags, two tires, an old pool cover and four dead birds. By the end of the two hour clean up, the kids (Kindergarten through six) had filled the bed of a pickup truck with all the stuff they had found! Right on for community activism!

On a different note...

The pitch deadline is fast approaching and I've been freaking out. The deal is that we (the 32 lucky students) have to make at least three movies this summer. There are four pre-selected themes to choose from: the visitors of Parks Canada, the natural beauty of the parks, the jobs at the parks and a creative license free for all. Now, I knew right off the bat I didn't want to do visitors of the park. It seemed like a streeter and with the combination of languages it would be a nightmare to subtitle.

So I think I finally have all three ideas in. Problem is, you'll have to wait for them to be officially approved before I tell you about them. Sorry guys, don't want to be let down publicly.

Now that I feel like I have three solid ideas that have a snowball's chance of being approved, I'm throwing myself into the research, cold-calls and thousands of introductions. (Bonjour, je m'appelle Kelly Greig et je suis une etudiante d'ete avec Parcs Canada.-Don't dare correct my spelling!) Finally I can stop worrying and start planning. Phase Two has begun. Next step: world domination.

Aww yeah.

Today's french word of the day: Falaise. Meaning: Cliff


**Also, I made a friend! Rosemary works for the park with me. She is from Vancouver, my age, speaks English and is Korean. Yay for a sliver of a social life.!**