The Bank of America hosted its 2009 Boston Neighborhood Excellence Initiative Awards last Thursday morning at the McKim Building in the Boston Public Library. This annual event recognizes outstanding charitable organizations with major grants and provides paid internships to young people who have made meaningful contributions to the Greater Boston Area. Chelsea was well represented, with honors bestowed upon both a local organization and a recent graduate of Chelsea High School.
Jemima Barrios, a Chelsea High graduate now attending Pitzer College in Los Angeles, CA., was among five young people selected by the Initiative as Student Leaders. During a paid summer internship at the United Way of Massachusetts Bay & Merrimack Valley, Barrios worked alongside the other four honorees and participated in a week-long Student Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. The summit focused on how government, nonprofit organizations and the private sector collaborate to drive positive change. At Chelsea High, Barrios was deeply involved with the Interact Club, participating in efforts to collect supplies, games, notes and other items for U.S. Marine Corps members stationed in Iraq. She also served as head of the Planning & Development Board at City Hall during the previous year’s Student Government Day. Unable to attend Thursday’s ceremony due to her studies on the West Coast, Barrios was represented by her parents, Nefectaly and Ana Barrios, who accepted a trophy commemorating her achievement.
In a separate honor, Chelsea’s Roca Inc. was named as one of two recipients of Bank of America’s Neighborhood Builders Award, alongside the Boston-based Project Place. Both organizations will receive $200,000 in unrestricted funding and access to specially designed leadership development programs for their staff. “On behalf of all of us at Roca, we are incredibly honored to receive the Neighborhood Builders Award from the Bank of America and to do so in the company of Project Place,” said Molly Baldwin, Executive Director of Roca.