Peace 4 LB

call time, 6:30 am. it's been months organizing this campaign, and it's finally here.

this is me with narong. narong is not only a fun and overall wonderful young woman, but a selfless and committed volunteer for our work. she was also a friend of melody ross, who was a wilson high school student who was shot and killed in alleged gang gunfire at a football game. narong was so deeply affected by the loss of her friend, that she chose to start a campaign to "do something". i remember the morning narong texted me, asking for my help in doing something to address this. i committed at that point to support in any way i could.

narong's dream of creating that "something" to address her friend's death inspired so many of us to get involved. her project quickly engaged the city of long beach's human dignity program, the long beach police department, the long beach unified school district and pta, peace builders and us, ccej. with the input of volunteer youth from each school and community members who just wanted to dedicate their time and energy, the peace 4 lb campaign was born.

as a committee, we acknowledged the real crisis at hand. melody ross was indeed a tragedy,

and she she received an extraordinary amount of attention (her story and family were featured on the front page of the press telegram for an entire week straight). we wanted to bring awareness and attention to ALL the families, community members and friends who lost a young person to violence, something that happens all too often in long beach. ironically, and horribly, a young woman mikayla who was on the peace 4 lb planning committee from the start, lost her brother in a shooting in january, in the middle of planning. this event was meant to happen, and it we absolutely needed to honor every youth we have lost as a community.

on this beautiful day, we did it. narong's dream came to fruition, and we brought together over 300 people on a saturday morning. after it was done, i hugged narong and told her "you did this!" and she just sobbed. i cried with her, of course. it's amazing- the power of a 19 year old khmer girl in long beach.