By EVA HANEGRAAFF
NORTH READING — Ella Ilteris, known around the North Reading Middle School for her maturity and compassion, was recently named this year’s eighth grade Project 351 representative for North Reading Middle School.
Project 351 is a movement that seeks to motivate young people to take on leadership roles and serve their communities. One eighth grader from each of the 351 districts in Massachusetts is chosen to be the Project 351 ambassador for that district.
Ilteris, as this year’s ambassador, represented North Reading Middle School at the “Launch Day” event, hosted by Project 351 in Boston on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On Launch Day, Ilteris describes her initial experience in saying, “I was super nervous.” She explains, “I didn’t really know anybody.” Her nerves were quickly calmed, though, as she was introduced to more people and began the scheduled activities. She remembers watching presentations by different people who all connected to leadership and community service. “We even got to see the governor talk, which was really awesome,” she said. Then, the representatives were broken up into groups and were given the opportunity to participate in packing food that would be given to homeless people. “It was just a really good day,” Ilteris recalled.
Next up for Ilteris was deciding on a Spring Service Project. “I get to kind of choose when and how I want to do it which is really cool to me,” she explains. What she ended up landing on for an idea is a clothes collection bin set up in front of her house where members of her neighborhood can drop off items to be donated to Cradles to Crayons. Her idea is innovative compared to past years when clothing has been collected at the school, making the sorting and transportation processes much more difficult.
Ilteris also attends a Zoom call every Tuesday night with the other Project 351 representatives around Massachusetts during which they learn about what goes into a service project such as the Cradles to Crayons drive as well as share ideas and strategies for how to go about them.
Project 351 is an organization that has been a large part of North Reading Middle School for a long time, with many alumni continuing to contribute to the mission of the organization. In mid-March a number of student leaders at the high school and middle school, including Project 351 alumni, participated in group discussions guided by scenarios taken from the Playbook Initiative in partnership with Project 351. Ilteris was an attendee at this event and learned about what goes into leading a group in discussions on sensitive topics so that next year she can take on this role.
Project 351 continues to create strong leaders in the North Reading community, and there is still a lot left for Ilteris in terms of her community service journey. She is excited to take on the challenge and continue to contribute to the betterment of her community in however many ways that she can through the opportunities provided to her by Project 351.