Learn more about Project L.E.O.N.
Leon Nelson wrote so well that his teachers thought his assignments were plagiarized. He wanted to write for the Baltimore Sun and publish his stories when he grew up.
At age seventeen, his story made headlines: “Baltimore’s First 2007 Murder Is Another Teen” – except he did not write this one. On New Year’s Day of 2007, my cousin Leon was shot and killed in front of his father at a Chinese carryout while waiting for his dinner. The murderer was also a teenager. My family and I were devastated over our tragic loss, but were even more disheartened by the violence among teenagers in Baltimore. Every six days, a murder story headlined another African-American teenager. It was a crisis that police and prosecutors could not stop. At Thanksgiving dinner of the same year, as
my family and I shared memories of Leon, we resolved to end the crisis ourselves. From that resolution arose Project L.E.O.N., an organization committed to “Lifting and Empowering
Our Neighbors.”
With Leon’s immediate family having moved from Baltimore, we dedicated ourselves to laying the foundation of Project L.E.O.N. and preserving Leon’s legacy. Desperate to meet the many diverse needs of the African-American male community, we divided the organization into two sub-projects, E.M.S (Every Man Succeeds) and S.O.S (Saving Our Sons), which focused on prevention and intervention, respectively. The success of each project would be driven by mentors giving each male guidance and programs providing alternatives to violence.
Project L.E.O.N. officially launched the first youth anti-violence “Saving Our Sons” Campaign on August 22, 2009 at Leon Day Park. The day marked the beginning of a journey to stop the epidemic and was the catalyst to implement our pilot school-based EMS Mentoring Program. Community leaders, ex-gang members, mothers of slain teenage boys, motivational speakers and numerous supporters came out to turn tragedy into triumph and give back to the community. The family of Leon Nelson, fighting to hold back tears, made a heart-wrenching plea to the young men, who stood less than a mile away from where Leon was murdered. As Doni Glover of BMORENEWS.com so eloquently stated, “For so many of these young men are begging for guidance, hungry for mentorship, and desperately in need of direction. But, if daddy is locked up or on drugs or just too busy with nothing to take the time to nurture his seed, he is leaving his child out there for the wolves with lamb chops tied around their ankles.” It is our goal that at least one young man will put down a gun, pick up a pen, and write the next story for the Baltimore Sun.
For more information on mentorship opportunities and donations, please visit www.projectleon.org or call
410-488-5692.
–Britni C.M. Lonesome
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