Fox Friday is a series that highlights the impressive accomplishments of Bedford Central School District students. Each week, we share things our students are doing that are sure to inspire.
Today’s Fox Friday focuses on junior Greg Ronel and six of his peers who make up the first-ever Pound Ridge Partnership junior board. Greg, who serves as president, answered a few questions outlining how he got it started last spring and what he and his classmates do for the community.
How did you get started working with the Pound Ridge Partnership?
I started working with the Partnership during the summer of my freshman year when I saw that they needed volunteers at their local events.
What gave you the idea to start a junior board? What do you hope it accomplishes?
While I was volunteering at Partnership events, I saw that they were in need of enthusiastic and reliable volunteers. I also noticed that students at Fox Lane didn't know how to get their required community service hours. Therefore, during the winter of my sophomore year, I decided to start the junior board to help fix these two issues.
How did you start recruiting members once you got the junior board approved?
In the beginning, I recruited people at Fox Lane who I knew well, worked with before, and who I knew were reliable. I believed that we needed members like this in order to have a successful board.
What events have you worked? What do you typically do there?
The junior board has worked at events like Food Truck Fridays, Pound Ridge Proud Day and the Harvest Fest. At each of these events, the board, along with recruited volunteers, helped set up the event itself, helped run the activities and broke down the event at the end of the day.
How does the work of a board member differ from that of a volunteer?
The junior board consists of seven members: myself, Dassabre McPhee Djan, Ava Kellner, Jacob Cormier, Josephine Hollander, Andre McConnell and Luke McConnell.
As the president of the board, I am responsible for communicating with the senior board about how many volunteers are needed for each event. I then relay this information to my fellow board members and we are each responsible for recruiting an adequate number of volunteers. We usually accomplish this by recruiting our friends and classmates via social media.
Have you learned anything surprising from this experience?
Each board member has learned how to lead, how to network and how to recruit many people to help with different events. We have also learned how to communicate and work with adults from a variety of backgrounds and specialties. These life lessons have been instrumental in our development as professionals.
