Local church to hold ‘Stop the Violence’ event

ALBANY — New Macedonia Christ Centered Ministries will host its inaugural “Stop the Violence” event, a Mayday block party, on May 12. Keisa Perry, the administrative assistant for the church, is helping coordinate and spread the word about the event.

“Our church is situated on the south side of Albany, and because of all of the crime that’s been going on, as part of our mission to help the community we want to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can,” Perry said of the motivation for the event. “Most of the residents on the street that the church is situated on are elderly, and it’s a bad thing when you can’t come and sit on your own front porch. So we just want to make it safe again.”

Perry said the Mayday event organizers have invited various community leaders to attend. Along with church pastors, the organizers have sent Dougherty County Sheriff Kevin Sproul, Albany Police Chief Michael Persley and Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler invitations.

The goal of the event is “to bring awareness and make the residents of the southside feel safe again and be able to come out and do things in the neighborhood and not have to worry about somebody coming and committing a crime,” Perry said. “When you can’t even allow your children to go outside because of the possibility of a drive-by … it’s just senseless. We want to kind of curb all of that.”

The event will be held at 620 Zackery Ave. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.