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Proclamation recognizing Reverend Glenn G. Grayson of the Hill District’s Wesley Center AME Zion Church for being honored by the White House as a “Champion of Change.”
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WHEREAS, on April 3, 2014, the Reverend Glenn Garrett Grayson, of the Hill District’s Wesley Center AME Zion Church, was honored by the White House as part of President Barack Obama’s Champions of Change program. Rev. Grayson was one of nine grassroots leaders recognized for taking critical steps to reduce gun violence in their communities; and
WHEREAS, in 2000, Rev. Grayson founded the Center That C.A.R.E.S. (Children/Adults Recreational and Educational Services), an after-school tutorial and enrichment program for neighborhood children. The center started with just four boys whose mothers were struggling to raise them and who found a positive male role model in Rev. Grayson. Today, the center serves more than 125 children year-round; and
WHEREAS, the youngest children are in Pre-K while the oldest become paid youth counselors who are taught job skills and are taken on college tours and field trips to Broadway plays, professional ballgames and amusement parks. Many participants, who had been struggling to finish high school, ended up going to college, and a few now have master’s degrees; and
WHEREAS, as a pastor who had buried young shooting victims, Rev. Grayson had always been interested in helping to reduce gun violence, but his focus galvanized in 2010 after his 18-year-old son, Jeron, a student at Hampton University in Virginia, was murdered while visiting friends at a house party near California University of Pennsylvania; and
WHEREAS, the memory of Jeron inspired Rev. Grayson to establish the Jeron Xavier Grayson Community Center, which will offer programs to help young people avoid gangs and gun violence, is scheduled to open this summer on Enoch Street in the Crawford-Roberts area of the Hill District;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Allegheny County Council ...
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