Youth mentor's son was among shooting victims this past Memorial Day weekend
CHICAGO (CBS) -- On this violent Memorial Day weekend in Chicago, even someone who was working to stop the violence found himself caught up in it.
A youth mentor's son was shot while on his front porch in the Jeffery Manor neighborhood. As CBS 2's Jermont Terry reported, this act of violence is only pushing the father and mentor harder to save boys and girls.
A door is always open for a discussion a community center on 71st Street in South Shore. At the nonprofit Lost Boyz Chicago, teenagers talk only about the obstacles they face.
LaVonte Stewart started Lost Boyz Chicago back in 2008.
"The very exact reasons we're talking now is the reason I started it," Stewart said. "It was about the spike in violence that I was seeing among young people."
After more than a decade of helping teens realize violence is not the way, Stewart said, "it literally came through my front door."
Last Friday night, as Stewart's son opened the door to receive a food delivery off 97th Street and Merrill Avenue.
"He opened the inner door, and we heard a very loud pop," Stewart said, "and he stumbled back out the doorway and said, 'Dad, I think I'm shot!'"
A bullet from a random shooter hit Stewart's 17-year-old son in both legs.
"He wasn't the target," Stewart said.
It would be an understatement to say Stewart is sick of this. He said having his son part of the 53 people shot over the Memorial Day weekend left him briefly questioning the work he does.
After assessing it all, Stewart came back and said the takeaway was that he was needed even more.
Lost Boyz now includes Lost Girlz. The organizations get kids into the program through sports – but once enrolled, they are learning so much more.
"It's a connection; a bond to let them know there's more to life than the streets," said Lee Smith of Lost Girlz.
Take Aaron Brown – who was once a youth member. He now gives back and mentors as an adult – offering a father figure that he never had himself growing up.
"You don't see the proof, but imagine how many youth that I saved; how many lives I actually saved," Brown said. "If we just let them run loose, imagine how worse crime would be."
"It's a privilege to watch him come up from a 13-year-old boy," Stewart said of Brown.
And Brown is proof as to why Stewart will not give up.
