Revere High School (RHS) hosted their fourth annual Girls With Grit event to empower both middle school and high school students.

Bonnie Simonelli, one of the planners of the Girls with Grit event, talked about why the event takes place in March.

Simonelli explained what Girls with Grit encourages, and what the day entails.

“It’s a day to celebrate women, to celebrate empowering women, sisterhoods, lifting up women, finding your talents, finding your place, finding your space,” Simonelli said.

Becky Dolosich also had a large part in planning the event, and she explained what Girls with Grit encourages in her eyes.

“Girls with Grit is supposed to be a program just for the young ladies in our school that covers self-confidence, self-esteem building, making sure that they understand there’s many work-related programs out there to help women in the workforce,” Dolosich said.

Simonelli explained how she decided who to hire as speakers for the girls, and what impact they have on these young students.

“We get speakers that we think would really hit it hard with girls…. Sometimes they’re in like jobs that most women don’t get in, like we had some women this year from like steel mills, and we’ve had officers, police officers, people that get into non-typical female vocations, but we want to let everybody know you can do anything as a female and not just be stuck in a certain kind of job,” Simonelli said.

Dolosich revealed one of the speakers invited to share her story at the event, and what she hopes the girls will learn from her.

“This year we brought in a girl, Rebecca Maxwell. She is a Cleveland influencer and she owns a few small businesses. She went to college for a semester and decided it was not for her, and she does very well for herself. So [it showed] the girls that [they] can start [their] own businesses based on the ideas that [they] have,” Dolosich said.

While this year’s speakers inspired the girls involved in the workshop, Dolosich has bigger plans for next year’s speakers, hoping to not neglect any issues plaguing the young girls.

“Next year we want to bring in someone to talk about not just mental health but eating disorders because we didn’t realize how many of our girls are actually affected by body dysmorphia,” Dolosich said.

Simonelli talked about what went into planning the event, and the support she had by other staff and organizations.

“Mr. Faris and Ms. George totally supported us [by] funding some of it and paying for breakfast. We get funded from local businesses, and we all combine our efforts. We… start at the beginning of the year, plan it throughout the year,” Simonelli said.

The event is exclusive to girls who are nominated to join. Simonelli explained how she chooses the attendees of the event.

“I ask counselors for recommendations, and some of the girls have things that they’re working on, some girls have worked through some things, some girls are just female leaders in the school. So that’s how we choose them,” Simonelli said.

This year’s theme was Wicked, and Simonelli described a speech she gave that pulled themes from the Wizard of Oz to fit with the mission of the event.

“I did a speech in the beginning. I thought it was really cool how Wizard of Oz has a lot of hidden meanings, and one of them’s ‘Everything you need to know you already have. You just have to figure it out, and you have to be shown, and you have friends that will help you,’” Simonelli said.

Along with displaying scenes of women empowerment from the movie, the girls also used the theme to uncover a different purpose. Dolosich talked about how they incorporated the theme into the activities of the workshop.

“We did a workshop on red flags and green flags in a relationship, and our theme this year was Wicked, so we used some clips from Wicked, and watched certain relationships in the movie,” Dolosich said.

Dolosich talked about the process of choosing a theme, and what makes them sure that a theme is right for the event.

“We try to find something that has a lot of women empowerment messages. Last year we had Barbie, and there was a monologue in the movie that was really powerful. We just find a fun theme that’s popular at the moment or maybe nostalgic for some,” Dolosich said.

Simonelli talked about her favorite part of watching students find their confidence through this event.

“My favorite part is when they’re like, ‘I never thought I could do that, or I never thought I could be that,’ and they’re like, ‘wow, I can. I have it in me, and [I have] help from other people, and I have to ask and learn,’ and they learn about it,” Simonelli said.

Simonelli explained why she felt so inclined to get involved in the event, and what it means to her.

“I have three daughters, and girls have always made sense to me. I’m a female, I just can relate to the struggles that a female goes through, and the importance of building up women,” Simonelli said.

Dolosich talked about Simonelli’s mindset when creating Girls with Grit, and why she wanted to get involved.

“[Simonelli and I] wished that there was something at school to help a lot of these girls but we don’t have a class for this and she goes, ‘Well, what if we did a workshop?’” Dololich said

RHS freshman Delaney Berrodin-Pinter attended the event and shared what the environment of the event was like.

“Everyone who attended had a good vibe. It was a very welcoming and fun environment,” Delaney said.

Berrodin-Pinter talked about the impact that Girls with Grit had on her and the way she lives her life.

“Hearing about different people’s lives and how they got to where they are really inspired me to make more friends and just be more open,” Berrodin-Pinter said.

Simonelli explained why the event took place when it did, and how they planned it around a special day.

“It’s supposed to be on the day of International Women’s Day, which is March 8th every year… and this year was Saturday, so we had ours on March 4th, but typically we like to do it on that very day of March 8th,” Simonelli said.

Simonelli shared her gratitude towards those who were involved in making this event so memorable, and helping her share her message to young girls throughout Revere.

“I want to thank everybody involved, especially the support from the board office. People come over and spend some of the day with us, and it’s just nice that everybody that sees us as important is there, and they make it important. We have… one day we’re celebrated, and it’s nice to have the support from everybody,” Simonelli said.