GreenRoots Celebrates First Year at Annual Meeting on May 11

By Seth Daniel

With the Chelsea waterfront around them and the Mystic/Tobin Bridge in the distance, Mohamad Chakaki and his daughter, Aya, sit and enjoy the ambiance outside the GreenRoots headquarters on the Chelsea Creek last Thursday evening, May 11, prior to the GreenRoots First Annual Meeting.

With the Chelsea waterfront around them and the Mystic/Tobin Bridge in the distance, Mohamad Chakaki and his daughter, Aya, sit and enjoy the ambiance outside the GreenRoots headquarters on the Chelsea Creek last Thursday evening, May 11, prior to the GreenRoots First Annual Meeting.

The Chelsea GreenRoots organization announced it is in good financial condition and it’s mission has been successfully carried out in its first year of operations on the banks of the Chelsea Creek.

About 100 members and organizational friends attended the first Annual Meeting on Thursday night, May 11, at the headquarters on Marginal Street.

After a social time that included great food and drinks, members of GreenRoots reported on its stability after one year of beginning the plans for launching the organization – which officially took off in July 2016.

“It has been an amazing year; it really has,” said Co-Director Roseann Bongiovanni, flanked by Co-Director Maria Belen Power, who both spun the organization off from the Chelsea Collaborative’s Green Space division last year.

GreenRoots Treasurer Bob Boulrice said the balance sheet has been carried out just as well as the environmental mission, which is unusual for an advocacy organization.

“The first eight months of the organization’s existence has been very good in operating a business, launching a business and setting up our chartered accounts,” he said. “In the first 10 months, the executives of the company have increased the net worth in the initial startup of the business. That is an unusual thing.”

He said GreenRoots started out last July with $224,000 in seed money, and it now has $277,000 in its accounts after 10 months of operation.

“There has been a net income of $52,000,” he said. “That’s a very impressive number because starting from scratch you raise money and ramp up. In the beginning of most startups, you spend more than you take in. GreenRoots did not do that. It means it has good supporters and competent management. I find the numbers very encouraging and you should be hopeful and encouraged by the way this organization is being run.”

GreenRoots has a mission of concentrating on environmental issues, environmental justice and a youth organizing component, known as the ECOYouth – as well as other issues like transportation.

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