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Well, here we are, friends, at our last intern blog of the summer.

Time flies when you’re having fun, eh? All good things must come to an end? Blah blah blah.

I’ve recently decided that those mottos are a bunch of junk. Yea yea - it seems like yesterday that we arrived at HQ, but the summer’s been full and there’s no way to walk away from this experience feeling as fulfilled as we do today if time flew that quickly. We made our days count, so they didn’t fly away, they just became blog posts and retail displays, TOMS events and projects.

There’s this quote that I really like, and I think it’s perfect for the occasion, especially given the major milestone TOMS is celebrating thanks to you guys - getting ready to give the one million pair of shoes to a child in need (niceee!). Here goes...

“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.”

Giving a million pairs of shoes is amazing. Wrapping up a summer stuffed to the brim with accomplishments that seemed way out of reach, lessons that seemed way out our league, and knowing that we really made a difference for a movement we’re passionate about - that’s pretty admirable too.

But the most awesome, literally the part that leaves me in awe, is the rest of the story waiting to unfold.

We’ve got millions more shoes to give that can make a huge difference in the lives of children around the world, and we’ve got millions of challenges in the form of super sweet internships, jobs, classes and big decisions, that call our names from somewhere in future. Let’s go get ‘em, champs.

Summer interns - miss you already. TOMS fans - don’t make me miss you! Spread the movement and be everywhere!

Thanks for an incredible couple of months.

Yea, I know that “hitting the ball out of the park” is often a phrase associated with baseball, but that was before Monster Golf invaded HQ. If you saw some of the whacks the TOMS fam took at Fun Friday last week, you’d better understand that here at TOMS, we go big or go home.

The mega-sized, ultra-awkward plastic clubs marked our territory at a park in Santa Monica, where we marched in our stylin’ Country-Club-gone-wrong getups, ready as ever for an afternoon for the record books.

But Fun Friday’s not all we Summer interns have been up to because, you see (cheesy line coming up - NOW)...every day is fun at TOMS!

Since you last tuned in we’ve invented our own convoluted assembly line to pack and ship the Fall retail displays, hit the streets for some sweet events in the area, jazzed up the Online Marketing interns’ desk quad and gotten really stoked about the new Fall styles that came last week (don’t you just love ‘em?).

Our summer may be winding down, but we’re not!! Same time next week, folks..

This past weekend was a big one for the Summer 2010 interns: lots of TOMS events means lots of TOMS lovin' to GIVE...

Maybe it was something in the water or maybe it was simply the energy of so many TOMS fans in contained areas; whatever the culprit, this weekend brought out the bizarre side in all of us... as you'll see in the pics below.

I met some interesting people at the Origins Project event at L.A. Live, while the rest of the crew partied down in Irvine for the event with Active and Krochet Kids.

And, of course, we were reminded of the overwhelming amount of support TOMS is collecting all over SoCal...how exciting to be a part of that, right?

Anyway, I think each of us have a different account of what we got out of this awesome weekend, so I'll save you the time and capture the shared emotion of the intern class in this deeply engaging photojournalistic essay that I'll call "Uhhh Nice Face?: TOMS Intern Edition"
 

Nicole & Micah & Tobi

(From left) Melanie, Jina & Lizzy

More weird faces of people hopped up on TOMS coming soon... Until then, don't do anything we wouldn't do!

To all those optimists reading this blog
For us interns, the glass is half full
This hardy clan has come a long way
And these 5 weeks have been anything but dull

Since the last time you read we've had major group laughs
Wedged between brainstorming the class project, you see
But to where July has been sneaking off
Is a question that definitely beats me

Last week we had a visitor From Charlotte, NC
She dropped in to meet Caroline and the interns
So we dragged her to the photo booth, respectively



Our awesome visitor Jane, squishing into the booth with me, Caroline, Avery, Dominique and James


Potluck lunch on Monday
Thursday intern lunch with Blake
Intern hangout that same afternoon
But we actually work hard too, make no mistake

Our project presentation was a big success
From Youth and TINY we invented decor
Around a map of where TOMS have been given
And we've got more random creations in store



Micah grilling the camera


This week we got our "mentors"
From other departments, they'll be our guides
And we learned to LOVE the new morning shuttle
From car to HQ (and back after work), Travis offers everyone rides

From half-time/midfield
Call it what you may
I'll leave you with that update
Check back for more escapades next Tuesday

 
“To do what you love and feel that it matters-how could anything be more fun?”-Katherine Graham

Because Blake’s in the office for a few weeks, we interns got to attend our first all-staff meeting last Thursday, only to learn that “pep rally” is a more fitting term. We were super excited to be reminded once again that we were valued as part of the TOMS family, but more than the excitement of the first all-staff was the surprise of the second all-staff that sprung up on us the very next day (Friday).

Recognizing that Fridays tend to drag a bit in anticipation for weekend, Blake relished the moment and guided us through an awesome exercise. He told us of a song he heard during his recent travels in Europe, and that he’s a firm believer (as am I) that everyone’s life has a soundtrack. He shared the song with us to pull us a little closer into where he is in his journey with TOMS.

Three-and-a-half years ago, as Blake and a small team of interns and employees ate, slept and breathed TOMS in order to gain enough momentum to get it off the ground, Blake and one colleague toured the country in an Airstream. He parked it on the crazy streets of New York City and stopped all along the way back to the West Coast, speaking at small events as often as he could find people to listen.

While parked in Texas, he heard this band in a coffee house and snagged their album, having really enjoyed their set. The next time he heard that band would be on his business trip to Europe, a little less than four years later, when audiences actually flocked to hear the TOMS story on their own will!

The band’s name is Balmorhea, and the song’s called “Truth.”

It would obviously be adopted into Blake’s life soundtrack, sending him on a wild adventure through his own mind, tracing the amazing TOMS landmarks since that Texas coffee house.

He thought deeply about where the four years had taken TOMS and himself, and also about the separate but similarly exciting path this band had followed during that time.

And so last Friday we found ourselves with the the lights turned off in HQ, all of us lounging in comfortable spots, with eyes closed and minds open. During the 6-minute song, Blake guided us to think about where our paths have led us in the past four years and where they may lead us in the next few.

Most of us interns have no idea where our paths will lead... how could we even? Some of us are still in school, most fresh out it and some a few years beyond that, but wherever we are in our lives, we can make it the peak if we fill our days with meaning.

From Left: Avery, Me, Jina, Dominique, Lizzy, Erin, Nicole and Melanie

I think I can speak for the whole intern pack that in the past 5 weeks at TOMS, we’ve been doing just that. This is just one of the amazing reminders of how lucky we are to be a part of something a whole lot bigger than us. And as the quote states it, “how could anything be more fun than that?”

Jake, Caroline, Nicole, Merissa and Julia

In the spirit of a patriotic long weekend we all very much enjoyed, this week's intern blog is a about an awesome little slice of our independence: Coming to a new place and making it our own.

We've hiked up canyons and city trails, woken up at the crack of dawn to watch one World Cup game after another (Julia even made it on national TV for the Germany flags painted on her cheeks), attended events at the Rose Bowl and the USC Coliseum, cooked with each other, cooked for each other, greeted awesome fans at the Style Your Sole event at the Viceroy in Santa Monica, and happily accepted our job to paint this great city red.

We all spent the 4th (my favorite holiday after Thanksgiving) cheers-ing our forefathers for that independence, but we don't have to stop celebrating just because the fireworks have ended. Freedom and independence are gifts we get to enjoy every day.

Jina, Lizzy, Dominique and me at Hermosa Beach's 4th of July festivities.

Yep, it's true. We are free to change our own worlds and the rest of it, too, starting from where we are right now!

It's been great to explore and conquer a new city, but the best part of our freedom is that we don't even have to leave the boundaries of our hometowns to do our part.

That's what I love about TOMS - we can do good from right here, today, and continue to do so when we return home.

Next week, I'm excited to post lots of details about what fun adventures we've been partaking in while exploring, so stay tuned. And in the meantime, here are few great pics from last week's Fun Friday with the employees at TOMS HQ. The interns get to coordinate all the Fun Fridays this summer!

Brian (Online Marketing) being a big-shot in the Vagabond Van. (Fine: We hereby admit that we actually think it's a cool picture.)

Tobi (Friends of TOMS), Garett and Micah (Retail Marketing) with the masterpiece they created at Fun Friday

Jina (International Online Marketing), me (Social Media) and Lizzy (PR) acting like kindergarteners-dirtier hands means you had more fun, right?

With HQ as our dressing room and the world as our stage, we interns have spent the past three weeks learning how to perform on behalf of TOMS from some of the most inspiring talent around.

In our Tuesday/Thursday intern lunch sessions with TOMS employees we've been collecting shreds of wisdom from those who’ve shaped the One for One movement we all feel so much a part.

A few intern lunches ago Tricia told us tales of one job and then another, where she learned a ton, did her best (which is pretty darn impressive) and then moved onto the next project, always feeling good about what she was doing. 

She has experience all over the board, but here at TOMS she manages E-Commerce and is either the suavest woman in Southern Cal or is a fantastic actress. Either way (probably both)-ENCORE!

Hajime (International Sales), Matt (Customer Service) and Jonathan (Operations) led another intern lunch, co-narrating the coming-of-age story of TOMS better than we’ve heard it before. Why? Because they’re some of the main characters.

These guys were among the first employees at TOMS (Jonathan was actually Blake's first hire), and have steered the movement with a growing team every step of the way.

Outside of HQ in our lunchtime powwow, they laughed and made us laugh even more, as they reminisced about the first TOMS holiday season, when Haji and Matt spent 36 hours (straight) packaging shoes to arrive to customers in time for Christmas...with Blake’s driveway as their mailroom. 

Three and a half years later, the guys live together, and say that work and play sometimes feel one in the same, which is pretty refreshing in a job market like this one.

So what do we interns have to learn from all this?

The importance of loving what we do and then wowwing the crowd with a performance we wholeheartedly believe in. 

So to all those who have played even the smallest of roles in the growth of TOMS, from the employees to the repeat customers, from the interns to those who went barefoot for One Day Without Shoes, and even to those who are simply spreading the word- Bravo! 

Together, we deserve a major curtain call.

Because we’re only here for the summer, the days feel like weeks and the weeks like months. So, in this crazy continuum of TOMS time, we’re loving and living some seriously heightened friendships. Week two-and-a-half welcomes us warmly, as we take turns noticing that we’ve fallen into a great routine here at HQ and outside these walls too.

From Left: Jina, Me, Lizzy, Nicole and Melanie adventure-ready in Malibu Canyon

Friends of TOMS intern, Tobi, begins the day, already so "LA", riding in on her sweet bike.

Avery, a fellow Online Marketing intern, finds us on the way in, antsy to tell us another so funny, so her story of driving dilemmas, like not being able to parallel park even when a TOMS employee directs her in.

We sit at our desks and start diving in to that day’s work.

Dominique, another intern force behind Online Marketing this summer, comes over to my desk to rustle my hair periodically.

We work more and then coordinate lunch times.

From left: James, Merissa, Lizzy, Jina and Amanda strolling out of HQ

I especially love lunch-bonding with Micah, the Retail Marketing intern and the most animated conversationalist of anyone I know, and with Brian, who always seems to have his finger on what's going on around town.

Twice a week Caroline (our amazing Intern Coordinator) invites some of the brains behind the TOMS brand to hang with the 17 of us interns and share their stories and respond to some personal and some professional Q & A, usually led by Amanda, Jessie or Julia.

Work calls us back again, and Jake (Giving Intern) peeps his head through the hole in the makeshift wall of boxes to pester me and James.

Oh, hey there Jake 

And then it’s weekend already, by which time Liz, who is interning in PR, has nearly successfully changed Jina’s name to Shmina, and Merissa, James and Erin have left and returned from a country music road trip to Irvine, while a bunch of the rest of us conquered a 5-mile trek through Malibu Creek State Park.

Fast forward to Tuesday, another awesome day of meaningful work for the One for One movement and a company we LOVE. Keep it coming, TOMS!

Once upon a budding social movement fourteen newbies stumbled into a beautiful summer adventure....

Hey, TOMS fans! I’m Chelsea, one of fourteen interns that just stepped into a great big pile of wonderful that is TOMS. Obviously this goes without saying, but I have to put it out there as we pinch ourselves from our new desks, we are SO pumped to be part of the TOMS family!

The shoes suspended from the ceiling, pictures of the One for One initiatives and “GIVE” displays made of shoes greeted us last Thursday, when we marched into HQ with wide eyes and big ambitions, and now we’re fully immersed in it all, loving that you guys are keeping TOMS so busy.

Though intern orientation presented us with a whole heap of info, I’ll give you the Cliff Notes version of a theme that kept finding its way into the day: storytelling. We all know (and hope you do, too) that every TOMS story plays an huge role in the ongoing TOMS saga, so I thought I’d introduce intern story time. So, without further ado...

(Back row, L to R) Brian, Merissa, Erin (hiding), Jake, James and Julia; (Middle) Lizzy, Melanie, Nicole, Jina, Micah, Tobi and Jessie; (Bottom) Amanda, Avery, Dominique and Me (Chelsea)

Chapter 1: What are YOU doing here?

A brisk air wafted in as two car-fulls of eager youngins arrived at TOMS for their first day of work. Jina, Lizzy, James, Jake, Nicole, Merissa, Erin and Melanie make an awesome little carpool of creative visionaries. They love each other...and quite frankly, they have to- they’re roommates. 

Lizzy and Melanie are both from Michigan, and though Melanie’s Midwestern accent is subtle, Lizzy’s comes through enough for the whole geographic region! She rocks it, though.

James speaks with an accent, too, but his a little more curious. Though he grew up in Texas, he brought back a twang from Australia after studying as an exchange student there.

Nicole reps Chicago for the intern class. She’s a campus rep at The Ohio State University and made a pair of Classics with a TOMS flag that we’re all trying to get our hands on.

Jake’s from St. Louis. Last summer he volunteered in a rural Kenyan orphanage doing all sorts of jobs, from personal projects to digging rocks out of a soccer field, and now he’s one of the Giving interns. How cool?

Jina’s from Nebraska and shares a room with Lizzy...and potentially a mouse, so she checks under both beds daily. Erin’s an amazing graphic designer from North Carolina, and Merissa’s a diehard Auburn fan with an incredible creative eye.

Into HQ Avery and Dominique followed that first morning, of course rocking their TOMS. They both go to school in California and will probably have to be in charge of directions until the rest of us find our way. Dominique and I kind of share a story, having both traveled around the world for a semester while taking classes on a ship.

Then we’ve got Micah, who commutes an hour and a half to work EACH WAY; Tobi, who just moved to Santa Monica from Aspen; and the East Coasties: Brian and me. My mom moved here from Miami last summer, so I get to live between two sunny cities, and Brian’s the oldest of the bunch. He worked for 5 years in New York City after undergrad, and now he’s in grad school at Harvard.