Spectacle Island visit and community garden stewardship | Waterfront Ambassadors photo diary

What does it take to craft your own mission statement? This was the question posed to the Waterfront Ambassadors during their second week of stewardship and learning in neighborhoods in and around East Boston.

To understand what it involves to develop and sustain a meaningful mission, the Ambassadors met with a variety of guest speakers, including local ecological and social justice advocates. Each of the guest speakers spent time sharing their experiences and perspectives on how their work impacts the local community, and beyond. This included presentations from: Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, Chief of Environment, Energy and Open Spaces, City of Boston; Michelle Moon, Co-Founder, Civic Space Collaborative; María de la Luz Lobos Martínez, Landscape Architect; Dennis Sullivan, Vice President, PIMCO; Chris Donohue, Associate Principal, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.; Janelle Woods-McNish, Managing Director, Community Impact, The Trustees; and Charissa Zapata, Engagement Manager, Trustees Boston Waterfront Initiative.

In addition to meeting with community leaders and partners throughout the summer, the Ambassadors will learn more about the mission of the Boston Waterfront Initiative and the work underway to design and build Piers Park III. While delving deeper into park design, and stewardship, the teens will visit several area parks. This past week the Ambassadors took the ferry to Spectacle Island, where they learned about its history and enjoyed the unique landscape. Today the 114-acre park is one of eight Boston Harbor islands accessible by ferry, offering trails, a sandy beach, and panoramic views of Boston.

Wrapping up their second week with a visit to the Magazine Street Community Garden, the Ambassadors met with Trustees Engagement Manager Michelle de Lima to help with stewardship, and to learn about The Trustees network of 56 community gardens. Altogether The Trustees-managed community gardens total 15 acres across eight Boston neighborhoods: Dorchester, East Boston, the Fenway, Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Mattapan, Mission Hill, and the South End.

In this week’s photo diary, the waterfront ambassadors share some favorite shots from their two site visits: