MA Board
MA Board
These amazing people have enthusiastically come together to serve the mission of Simon Says Give with their individual passions and talents. Because of them, there are tens of thousands of children that benefit from Simon Says Give. We love our board! Please take time to meet them.
Meet the MASSACHUSETTs Team
MEET THE MASSACHUSETTS TEAM
Simon Eber
FOUNDING PRESIDENT & CHAPTER MENTOR
Simon (he/him), 20, founded the Worcester chapter in 2016 while attending eighth grade at Forest Grove Middle School. Looking to honor the concept of “tikkun olam” (performing acts of kindness to repair the world), he wanted to give back and make a difference in his city. In his five years as president, the Worcester chapter provided 2100+ middle school backpacks filled with supplies, celebrated 180+ kids, and generated more than 2,500 youth volunteer hours (in addition to his own). Simon speaks Mandarin and spent six months studying and traveling in China in 2023. He plays guitar, rock climbs competitively, and eats everything he possibly can. He is a junior majoring in Economics and East Asian Studies at Brandeis University, where he holds a Humanities Fellowship.
Jim Eber
Adult Leader
Jim (he/him) has nearly three decades of experience in public relations, marketing, and collaborating on books and projects with personalities and brands across a variety of consumer and business areas. He has been directly involved in the launch of 14 New York Times bestsellers and has been the writer of 25+ books covering all aspects of business, as well as food and memoir titles. Not surprisingly, people find him much more interesting when he is writing about chocolate, than management—including his wife and son.
AMY RICHTER
Adult Leader
Amy (she/her) is Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at Clark University. Her research and teaching focus on nineteenth and twentieth-century American cultural history, with an emphasis on women’s and urban history. She also serves as the Academic Director and U.S. History instructor in the Worcester Clemente Course in the Humanities. She helps Simon Says Give - Worcester with all aspects of our work, especially connections across Worcester and with the Kid Advisory Board. For her work with us and Clemente she received the 2022 Lund Award from Clark University.
MA Kid Board
MA KID BOARD
Julianna "Juju" Fisher
President
Julianna (she/her), 15, took over as president of the Worcester Kid Advisory Board at the end of 2023, but she is one of our original volunteers. She was part of our first-ever backpack assembly in May 2017 and has volunteered at every event since, helped deliver backpacks/binders and birthdays, and has been a master blanket maker for our birthday kids. She even raised more than $2,000 for our backpacks in 2021 as part of her bat mitzvah! She waited to be old enough to get even more involved with us as a board member in 2021. Julianna has a passion for sports and music and loves sunny days and hanging out with her friends. Born and raised in Massachusetts, she attends Doherty Memorial High School in Worcester.
Brendan Irish
Vice President
Brendan Irish (he/him), 16, is returning for his third year as a member of the Kids Advisory Board. Brendan enjoys seeing the joy of the kids when they receive their birthday presents or school supplies. He hopes to build on the work he has been doing over the past three years including the second year for the Simon Says Give club at Worcester Academy he started with another board member and looks forward to stepping into his officer role on the board. Brendan is from Worcester MA and is a junior at Worcester Academy.
Morgan Blundell
Former President, Current Chapter Mentor
Morgan (she/her), 16, was the first applicant to our Kid Advisory Board and our second Kid President, a role she held for two-plus years until the end of 2023. We delivered more than 1500 binders and 75 birthdays during her tenure! She started volunteering with Simon Says Give – Worcester in May 2018 when she attended our annual backpack assembly, and she has been at every single event and meeting since. Born and raised in Worcester, she is the oldest of three girls. She loves to laugh and help others, especially watching the kids we serve open their birthday gifts and the middle school students open the binders we put together for them because she can see the impact we are making through their smiles. She is a junior at Worcester Technical High School where she is focusing on carpentry.
Natalie Kakule
Senior Director
Natalie (she/her), 17, started volunteering with Simon Says Give in 2019 through her school in Worcester. She found herself impacted and wanting to do more and joined our kid board in the fall of 2021. Since then, Natalie’s family has moved to western Massachusetts, where she plays lacrosse for her school’s team. She continues to work with Simon Says Give and hopes to continue forming connections with private institutions in Worcester to help raise money for some of her favorite projects that the organization hosts such as birthday box and backpack builds—all before she graduates in 2024!
Mylo Michelle Flores
Senior Director
Mylo (he/they), 16, is an art-empowered teen leader with a passion for the arts and environmental sciences. As a member of Arts Worcester, Mylo is constantly finding new ways to merge his/their love for the planet with his artistic skills through murals. Dedicating his downtime to understanding the ways of nature and ways to capture it forever, he/they are a member and camp counselor of the Mass Audubon and the Audubon Society. In addition to all that and his Simon Says Give work, he/they ran Crate & Howl, an online and on-site dog supply shop based in Worcester. Mylo is a homeschooled high school junior student of Connections Academy.
Giselle Patel
Director
Giselle (she/her), 14, attended her first SSG backpacking event three years ago with her friend Julianna and has been enjoying It since. She has also helped with birthdays, which was really heartwarming and exciting. Participating in SSG makes her feel good because she enjoys helping her community. She was born in Massachusetts and now attends Clinton High in Clinton, Massachusetts, but still wants to stay involved on the leadership team and join the board and can't wait to help out more with SSG.! She plays field hockey and enjoys playing volleyball.
Finlay Sullivan
Director
Finlay (he/him), 17, attended his first packaging ceremony in 2023, stepped up to drive and help with several deliveries, and immediately felt inspired by Simon Says Give's purpose. Within this leadership position, Finlay hopes to be more involved in the operations of delivering school supplies to rising middle school Worcester students. He is currently a senior at Saint John's High School and enjoys rowing on Lake Quinsigamond and playing with his dog Wolf.
Ysabel Lobo
Director
Ysabel Lobo (she/her), 16, is a junior at Worcester Academy. She started volunteering with Simon Says Give Worcester in 2022 after starting a Simon Says Give Club at her school with another board member, Brendan Irish, and joined the board in 2023. She is so excited to begin working with her peers at school and on the board to come up with new ideas to give back to her Worcester community.
Dontae Ducharme
Director
Dontae (he/him), 13, lives in Worcester and has been volunteering with us since our second backpack assembly in 2018. He has been coming back every year since. He even joined us when we delivered school supplies to older kids at his elementary school, Columbus Park Academy. In 2022, when we needed a hand, he got permission to leave his school and deliver them to students his age around the city. He continued his work in 2023 while in 7th grade at Forest Grove Middle School, and now in 8th grade, he has joined the kid advisory board in hopes of bettering the community.
Elisabeth "Ellie" Blundell
Director
Elisabeth “Ellie” Blundell (she/her), 14, is a freshman at Doherty Memorial High School in Worcester and volunteered with Simon Says Give for four years before joining the board in 2023. She enjoys participating in SSG because she loves making people happy and helping those in need.