Zoe Weiner wasn’t happy she couldn’t vote, but she wasn’t going to let being 16 stop her from participating in election day.

On Tuesday, Weiner launched her volunteering initiative, Drive for Democracy, to help older voters get rides to the polls.

Weiner, a junior at Newton South High School, recruited friends and peers to serve as drivers for the initiative. During election day, Weiner was off-the-wheel—her driver’s test isn’t until next week. Instead she worked on the management side, distributing assignments to the on-call drivers.

The idea came to her while she was talking to her grandmother who lives in an assisted living center in upstate New York. Weiner realized that older people like her grandmother “were having a really hard time getting around,” she said.

Weiner then spoke to her mom. “She talked about how it can be really challenging for elderly people to have to give up their independence at some point,” Weiner said. “I and a lot of my peers are in this period where we’re all getting our license and gaining more independence.”

Colleen Chapman, Weiner’s mother, said Weiner has long been interested in politics. Chapman talked about Weiner’s disappointment in eighth grade, when the traditional school trip to Washington, D.C., was canceled.

Weiner decided to arrange the trip independently with a few of her friends and parents. Weiner saw the White House, toured the Senate Chamber and met Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

“I think that experience in eighth grade just generated a real interest in government and politics for her,” Chapman said.

Isabella Folch, a senior at Newton South who is a close friend of Weiner’s, participated in Drive for Democracy. Folch said the two have always shared their common interests in politics.

“We always end up talking about politics one way or another,” Folch said. “It always kind of ends up as conversation at the dinner table.”

Folch has also long been dedicated to civic engagement. In 2017 she attended the Women’s March at 8 years old. 

Folch said she and Weiner shared the same sentiment. “We are too young to vote, but we still want to be part of the democratic process,” Folch said. 

Drive for Democracy was a way for Folch and Weiner to achieve that, but it wasn’t Weiner’s first idea. Weiner first asked her parents if she could become a poll worker but later pitched the idea for Drive for Democracy.

“There were several more components to it than directly being a poll worker,” Chapman said.

Weiner’s  main challenge was outreach. At first, she reached out to other organizations that provide support for older residents but ended up not collaborating with any groups because they have restrictions with partnerships, so she resorted to social media, mainly Facebook and Nextdoor.

“I think outreach is hard,” Folch said, “especially because the type of outreach for my generation is social media, and the community that we were trying to reach with this initiative is not a community that is very present on social media.”

Chapman posted about the project on Nextdoor to help her daughter get the word out. The reactions were “glowing,” Chapman said. 

One user wrote, “What a wonderful gesture!” 

Another wrote, “Awesome! Love to see the youth getting involved.”

Weiner plans to expand the project in upcoming elections by replicating the model in other districts, specifically in D.C. and Maryland, where a lot of her family friends live and showed interest in contributing.

“I’ve been hearing a lot of talk recently about how people are withdrawing themselves from participating in politics,” Weiner said. “I think it’s really important for everyone, even people like me who can’t vote yet, to participate in politics in their community.” 

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This story is part of a partnership between the Newton Beacon and the Boston University Department of Journalism’s Newsroom Initiative.