Albany civic group launches ‘Operation Cease-Fire’
By Alan Mauldin
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ALBANY, Georgia (Albany Herald) — The Wolfpack is on the prowl in Albany, but the good news is that the civic improvement group is on the hunt for ways to make a difference in the lives of city residents.
On Saturday, the group is partnering with the Albany Cares Group to hold Operation Cease-Fire as a way to help prevent violence in the city. The three-hour event starts at 4 p.m. at 1926 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Other participating groups include Dream by Kendra and Lavishly Ladybug. The event will feature food and bounce houses for the kids.
“We’re at 32 days with no shootings, no homicides, and we want to keep that trend going,” Wolfpack CEO Wendell Walker said. “The goal is to bring the community together.”
One concept the group wants to enforce is that when young people engage in violence, it affects more than just an individual victim.
“What we’re preaching is everybody has a brother, everybody has a mother, everybody has a sister,” Walker said. “We have been through a moment where we had four deaths in a less-than-seven-day period. We want it (non-violence) to become the norm.”
The Wolfpack has been active for about three years and is a group of like-minded community members who focus on issues including health literacy and educational literacy. The new anti-violence initiative was launched on June 10.
“There are 10 Wolfpack members,” Walker said. “All of us have different jobs or own a business. We meet every Wednesday at the cigar lounge at 5.0. We come up with different ways we can get in the community and help the community get better.”
Some of the outreach efforts have included talking with children about the need to stay in school and continue their education or get a GED, assisting single mothers and encouraging men, who are often reluctant to see a doctor for their ailments, to seek out health care.
“We want to go where it’s going to have an impact,” Walker said. “We want to move around, talk with people in our community.”
The Wolfpack decided to enlist the assistance of the Albany Cares Group, which was founded by Albany businessman Gilbert Odoto and has an eight-year history of working in the community, to help launch Operation Cease-Fire.
“Gilbert has given the Wolfpack a platform so men and women can get together with one goal: to stop the violence,” Walker said. “God has blessed us with working with Gilbert and Tosh (Sevier). Now we are breaking new ground working with them.”
On Sept. 4, the Wolfpack is scheduled to start a mental health initiative that will include two counselors and 10 community educators.
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