On Saturday, November 25th, leaders from the greater New York Metropolitan area gathered at Insight Partners. Smiles filled up the room and vibrant energy was unleashed  –– at our second inaugural Riley’s Way alumni meetup. It was a delightful day filled with laughter, rekindling old friendships and creating new ones.

We started off with some fun and interactive icebreakers to create connections and initiate collaboration. For one of the activities, all of the attendees were asked to submit their baby pictures beforehand so we could play a guessing game in a quiz-style format. Everyone enjoyed playing this game and it truly served as an entertaining warm-up that kickstarted the day ahead!

The highlight of the event was our packaging activity for Confident Healthy Women, a wonderful organization working to combat period poverty through the donation of hygiene bags to the greater New York City Community. This was a 2020 Call for Kindness project and is now led by Leia, who spearheads donation coordination and education along with her team.

Thanks to some of our corporate donors and alumni, we had hundreds of products to create over 150 hygiene care packages. We had a bustling assembly for packaging the hygiene kits as we packed everything from pads and tampons to LUSH bath bombs and makeup samples. It felt rewarding to contribute, and brought us all closer in the process.

After the activity, a few of us delivered the care packages to the Emma Bowen Community Center in Hamilton Heights. The Emma Bowen Center provides accessible mental health and social services – including a therapeutic preschool for children and food pantry – for members of the Harlem community and beyond. Named after community justice activist Emma Bowen, her legacy lives on through people like our alumni making a difference in this world. This event wasn’t just about giving back, but also about the joy of coming together as a community.

Hosting this meetup in New York City post Thanksgiving was like a breath of fresh air. Engulfed by the spirit of kindness and empathy, it was inspiring to connect our alumni leaders and engage in a thoughtful service project. We hope to make NYC a hub for alumni going forward and anticipate many more meetups to come in the future. It’s also exciting to be able to expand and grow our alumni program, along with our youth-led committee. We’re so grateful for these moments and the incredible impact we can make when we unite for a cause!