‘A Call to Manhood’ event kicks off in LaGrange

LAGRANGE, Ga. (WTVM) - The Lagrange City Council and police, along with the Saving our Sons organization provided a free two-night stay at Great Wolf Lodge for young men ages eight to 15. The organizer behind this event says their main goal is to stop the epidemic of youth gun violence.

Gun violence is something that has hit close to home for 9-year-old Montrez Truitt. Truitt is one out of 20 young men attending the saving our sons program. Truitt says so far, he has enjoyed his time.

“It’s great cause it’s been a lot of violence going on like my cousin died a few months ago and other kids dying. So, this is a great thing to cut off the school year. It’s a good thing,” Montrez Truitt said.

The City Council of LaGrange and the Lagrange Police Department are also helping with this initiative. One police officer spoke with the young men earlier on youth gun violence. Officer Bryant Mosley says it’s something they see too often.

”In the past, it has been a lot of that happening, I think though we’ve been making concentrated efforts to be preventative in that way such as being a part of this making sure we educate the community on what we’re doing ensuring that they know that they can come to us that we’re a trusted source form and just try to hit it off before it becomes that problem because of course, we always take care of it when it’s necessary, but we want to make sure it stopped before it gets there,” Bryant Mosley said.

Bruce Griggs, the organizer of this event, says it’s more than just a two-night stay with workshops.

“Starting June 5th, thanks to the city of LaGrange and the LaGrange City Police Department we’ll be doing an 8-week rite of passage program right back here in LaGrange GA those kids will get paid $100 stipend per week to stay out of trouble,” Bruce Griggs said.

The Lagrange City Council made this event possible. Councilman Nathan Gaskins says it’s unfortunate that they have to have these conversations about violence with young men.

“It’s necessary. It needs to be done. We need to explain to them that you know there are life is a series of choices that you make. There are a lot of entities you know whether they be TV or Instagram, that people glorify bad decisions. This is not good. This is not good,” Nathan Gaskins said.

If you missed this event, the organizer says there will be more events coming up in the future you can call the organizer at 404-889-3008.

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