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The weather was drizzly and dismal as residents filtered into Statesboro City Hall on Saturday, January 18, 2025 for Community Conversations, as part of the 2025 Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance. Yevette McCall, president of the Bulloch County Chapter of the NAACP, welcomed the crowd and made an impassioned plea for more residents to join the Bulloch County NAACP.
"Help us to serve the community," McCall said. "Help us do more in the community."
City of Statesboro First Lady Adrianne McCollar emceed the event, beginning by inviting members to talk about the feelings Tuesday's tragic shooting event brought up.
Mayor Jonathan McCollar was the first to speak, reminding guests and the community at large to get involved.
"We're not looking for anybody to solve everything," he said. "We just need you to do one thing."
Madeline Ryan Smith, a social scientist, business owner, and political activist, urged the audience to write to their local and state representatives to see the positive changes they seek enacted.
Dr. Akiv Dawson, assistant professor in the Criminal Justice Department and Criminology at Georgia Southern University, broached the need for social services.
"If you truly believe that education is important, that employment is important, that lifting people out of poverty is important, you have to invest in that, you can't just say it, because whatever you invest in, that's where you're going to see the growth, that's where you're going to see the success."
Statesboro resident Darryl Williams made the point that we have the tools to help the at-risk youth of Bulloch County.
"We need to activate what we have."
Adrianne McCollar made a poignant comment about the gun violence that plagues today's youth. "We can't keep glamorizing a life that gets you nowhere," she said.
City Manager Charles Penny had good news for the crowd, informing them that over 16,000 jobs are coming to Bulloch County. This will go a long way towards the economic growth that Mayor McCollar closed the meeting with.
"Right now, this region is in the biggest economic growth that it has ever seen," he declared. "We are growing economically faster than many areas across the country."
This bodes well for the parents of at-risk youth who may be looking for work and would decrease the 37.5% poverty rate in Statesboro.
Ms. Vernetta Staten, an area educator and mentor to many youth in our community, invited the audience to the upcoming Delta event, "Empowering Youth Men to Score Big in Life." The event is scheduled for March 1, 2025, from 9:00am to 2:00pm at Georgia Southern University,
The closing words from Thomas L. James, vice president of the Bulloch County NAACP, were uplifting and hopeful.
"We are stronger together than we are apart."
For more information about the Bulloch County NAACP, please visit their Facebook page.
