Honorees inspired others, leader says

The attorney general served as the event’s keynote speaker.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Each of the honorees at the 11th annual Peace Award Recognition Event of the Mayor’s Task Force on Crime and Violence Prevention’s has left a positive mark on the community, the group’s chairman said.

Those honored Monday ranged from Laquasha Mitchell, an 11-year-old girl who returned to school only days after being shot in an apparent drive-by shooting; to Danny S. Levy, organizer of a South Side community event; to the Community Corrections Association Inc. for its active role in cleaning up the Market Street corridor.

“We’re recognizing those who have benefited Youngstown in inspiring ways,” said Dr. Earl Parchia Jr., the task force chairman. “They’ve showed the best that Youngstown has to offer.”

Laquasha was wounded at her West Ravenwood Avenue home in the apparent drive-by on Feb. 24. Still hurting and walking with a limp, she returned to Southside Upper Elementary four days after the shooting to lead the school’s quintet chorus and also danced.

The quiet girl smiled when honored, saying she was excited and “very proud” to receive the award at the event held at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church hall.

“She serves as a beacon of hope,” Parchia said. “She inspired an entire community by getting up after her tragedy to sing and dance.”

Levy helped establish the Kenmore Block Party in 1999. The event features a parade, carnival rides, pony rides, live music, arts and crafts and other activities on the first weekend of every August.

He also organizes a Memorial Day candlelight vigil for families who’ve lost loved ones, and a Halloween party every year.

“It keeps the kids occupied and having fun and gets people involved in the community,” Levy said. “I’m very appreciative of this award.”

The task force, established in 1989, is active in programs and projects that can help reduce the city’s crime rate. Its belief is that the community working together can make a difference in the city.

Monday’s keynote speaker was Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, a Liberty Democrat. As a Mahoning Valley resident, Dann said he’s learned two important lessons.

The first is “that corruption and the crime it breeds can literally tear the soul out of a community, and can bring the strongest, proudest people to its knees,” he said. “We all know that, because, sadly, we all lived it.”

The second valuable lesson is “those same people can, if they choose, get up off their knees, stand up, and fight with all they have within themselves to take their community back. We all know that, because, happily, we all lived through that experience as well.”

The sources of crime being fought today are a lack of education and economic opportunities, joblessness, poverty and “the hopelessness and despair that it breeds,” Dann said.

Just because the challenge of addressing those issues is great, it doesn’t mean people should give up.

“It means we have to stand up taller and fight harder than ever before,” Dann said. “And we have to fight differently.”

To reduce crime, a focus must be placed on making sure children are educated and employed, he said.

“We must create economic opportunity and the hope it breeds in our cities,” Dann said. “If we do not, then we are ceding them to the enemy and dooming the families living in our neighborhoods to lives marked by violence and despair.”

Dann opened a satellite office in downtown Youngstown that is working with law enforcement agencies to fight crime. “The attorney general’s office has some incredible resources,” he said. “Use us.”

Youngstown police did that, he said, in making a recent arrest related to a 1985 murder. “That happened because local officials responded to our invitation for them to use our new DNA technology to clear cold cases,” Dann said.

Having state-of-the-art technology helps fight crime, but the most important asset in that battle is people, he said.

“Working together, standing together, fighting together, someday we will all celebrate together when we achieve our goal of making Youngstown what it can be: the safest, best place in Ohio to live, work and raise our families.”

skolnick@vindy.com