We’re grateful to have received a small grant from the Canadian government to hire a student intern who will join our New Direction staff team for July and August. Our intern this year will be Lydia Keesmaat-Walsh, a high school student from Lindsay, ON who has participated in some of our Generous Space events over the past year.
Lydia will be primarily be helping to manage our online presence, reviewing LGBTQ+ resources, communicating with donors, and editing videos for us, but she’ll also be involved in our upcoming Generous Space Camp-OUT (since it’s happening at her house!).
We thought we’d ask Lydia a few questions so you can get to know her better…
How did you first connect with New Direction?
I first got connected with New Direction last summer when the summer camp-out was held at my family’s farm. That weekend was the first time that I felt I could be comfortable in both my sexuality and my faith. I knew that this was the kind of community that I wanted to be a part of.
I think that by being involved in the Generous Space community I have grown more confident in my faith and have learned to not be ashamed, but instead embrace my sexuality. I have learned that it is okay to be myself and that there are people who will love me and support me for who I am.
I am extremely involved with my local little theatre both on and offstage. I love to read and write and am always on the lookout for good climbing trees. I love being with kids and am extremely passionate about issues of social justice and and very interested in politics and Deaf Culture.
That’s a hard one. I want to get my Sign Language interpreter certificate and I also want to work with people on the margins, whether that be with indigenous communities, or refugees or with street-involved people.