What It’s Like to be a Member of Boston’s Junior Ambassadors!

By Allison Russo, Community Engagement Coordinator at Room to Grow Boston

As the Room to Grow representative for the Boston Junior Ambassadors, I sat down with one of our wonderful members for an interview about her experience. Emily, an eighth grade student in Boston, talked about being a founding member of the Boston Junior Ambassadors and the projects she’s been involved in over the past four years. 

How did you first learn about Room to Grow and how did you get involved with the Junior Ambassadors?
I first learned about Room to Grow when I was in fifth grade, through a friend. She told me about the organization and said that they were trying to assemble a program for kids to get more involved. She asked if I wanted to be a part of it, and I thought it sounded like a great opportunity, so I decided to join. I was actually one of the four original ambassadors in Boston.

Wow! What was it like in the beginning with just four people?
Well, we weren’t doing as many activities as we are now. There were a lot of brainstorming sessions. We were trying to figure out what we wanted to do as a group, but we knew we wanted to get more people involved. Our meetings were in the Room to Grow office. It was really fun, and it still is!

What did you do to get more people involved?
We had an event in the Room to Grow office. It was a clothing sort — we invited our friends to come, and a lot of them ended up getting involved after. It was definitely a success.

It’s so cool to hear about what your experience was like when you started as a Junior Ambassador, and I’m curious to hear more about the things you’ve done in the past few years. Can you tell me about your favorite project with the Junior Ambassadors?
Hands down, the best project was the Launch Trampoline Park event in April 2019 to raise money for Room to Grow. It was really fun to plan and to see it all come together. We had a raffle, people on the trampolines, laser tag — it was a lot. 

For some of the planning, we had the support of Room to Grow. Junior Ambassadors were in charge of inviting people and getting raffle prizes. We invited everyone! I remember I sent out the invite in an email to my grade and texted everyone I knew. I shared a bit about Room to Grow in my email, and at first I didn’t know how people would react or if they would understand just by reading the message. That’s a big priority for me: telling people about Room to Grow.

Getting raffle prizes was a big learning experience because we had to reach out to owners and managers of businesses to get the raffle prizes. We had to figure out who was the right person to talk to at the place we wanted to ask for a donation. Then we had to email them, tell them what we were doing, and actually secure the raffle item. I reached out to five businesses — a gelato place, a bookstore, and some other places.

Sounds like a big job and a very successful event. I can tell why it was so memorable for you!
Yeah, I definitely learned a lot. And I also had a lot of fun!

Looking ahead, what is something you are excited about for the future of Room to Grow or the Junior Ambassadors?
think it’s really important for kids to learn about their community and to care about it. My hope for the future is that more kids become aware of the cause and the organization. I want to get more kids my age more engaged with Room to Grow.

Why is Room to Grow’s work important to you?
Room to Grow’s goal is to make sure that all kids in Boston and New York have the resources they need. The fact that Room to Grow’s work is focused on that and making sure that all kids meet their developmental milestones on time is really important to me. I think it’s great! Plus, thinking about babies and little kids being happy is so cute to me.