Blown away: AWOL fundraiser cancelled due to tornado

Our friends at All Walks of Life (AWOL) need our help.  One of the major storms to pass through Savannah in the past few weeks produced a tornado that not only caused AWOL to cancel a fundraiser event but, worse, destroyed thousands of dollars worth of food and equipment. Darn tornadoes!

For those of you who don’t know, AWOL works to promote and provide self-awareness to at-risk youth through the use of poetry, hip hop and life.  They are an inspiration to the kids whose lives they touch and – well – to us.

The mid-June fundraiser was supposed to raise an upwards of $5,000 so that the AWOL kids could travel to our nation’s capital for a Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam, highlighted by the filming of an HBO documentary.

“The festival they’re going to is called brave new voices and HBO is doing a documentary on youth and the spoken word movement,” says DaVena Jordan, one of AWOL’s directors.

But the fundraiser was stopped before it even got started by rain, hail and 70+ mile per hour wind.  The over 60 youth and adults, who had outfitted the Lake Mayer Gazebo with sound equipment for the event, huddled together in the Lake Mayer restroom to wait out the storm.  Watch the WSAV news video on the story.

By their own account:

With well over 60 persons inside the Lake Mayer Gazebo, rain, hail, and 90-100 mile per hour winds began to tearing through the gazebo. Groups of young people were huddled together screaming and crying in a corner of the gazebo hoping the rain and wind would soon stop. Across the gazebo on the other side were Tony, my parents, who had come to volunteer and my 6-year old son Caleb. With only about 10 feet between us, I could see nothing, not even a sillouette of either of them. Later, I would find out that all four of them had strapped themselves to one of the stabilizing beams of the gazebo to keep from being blown out into the storm. Within seconds, the doors began to blow off the gazebo, inciting even more terror and the heightened realization of the danger we were in.

We’re thankful that no one was injured and now want to focus community support for AWOL’s continued determination to make it to Washington DC.  These kids need our help!  What can you do?

• Attend the rescheduled fundraiser at Lake Mayer Gazebo on Wednesday, July 2nd from 3pm – 8pm. AWOL won’t be able to provide food or sound equipment for this event but it will still be well worth it to attend!

• Make donations to AWOL through their website: www.awolinc.org or at their downtown Savannah office: 7 Drayton Street, Suite 313.