If Vashon High School senior Peter Lumkins Bey was truant when he eavesdropped on a 10th grade mentoring session Wednesday by Project Peace and the Reclamation Project, he had a good excuse.
“That’s something I really needed to hear,” Lumkins Bey said, leaving the session, which included serious remarks by Reclamation Project participant comedian Arvin Mitchell about his wayward past.
“Where I’m from, don’t nobody tell us stuff like that. My mother is always at work and my daddy is incarcerated,” Lumkins Bey said.
“I was checking it out, because my little brother told me they were going to be talking about stuff like that. I just need to listen to it, because that’s all most people need n somebody to talk to them.”
That’s exactly what Project Peace does n talk straight to youths.
Project Peace is an organization co-founded by former police officer Redditt Hudson and ex-convict Sultan Muhammad, now a member of the Nation of Islam. Hudson is CEO and Muhammad is president.
“We purposely have the same title to illustrate that we are equally interested in this work,” Hudson said. Project Peace’s primary focus is raising awareness of youths in the community relative to all the things that will impact their lives and that are presently impacting lives, so that they can make better choices.
Project Peace heads the mentoring component of the Reclamation Project, an organization of black men who have come to the aid of troubled high school students.
The session for sophomores was the third one at Vashon, but it was shortened because a freshman assembly had been scheduled at the same time. The sophomores are familiar with the men of Project Peace and the Reclamation Project and have a good rapport with them.
Before the session, Hudson predicted it would go smoothly because of the familiarity, but said their talks are more dynamic and fiery when there’s a first-time group, especially freshmen.
“I’ve been watching the freshman group and everything that’s been going on here this morning, and that’s a group we really need to talk to,” Hudson said.
About the sophomore group, Hudson said, “These students are this positive every time we see them.”
Hudson said media often miss the story when reporting on urban and public school districts. They emphasize MAP test scores and underachieving students without knowing what the students have to overcome, in terms of survival, just to be productive on a daily basis.
“We just want to help you understand your situation, so you can make a better choice about how to use this resource, this education,” Hudson told the youth.
“This place is one of the last places people are going to work with you through your problems and suffering that you bring into the schools with you.”
Muhammad used his and his mother’s overcoming a troubled past as an example of achieving in the face of adversity.
“You all heard me talk in previous sessions, and I always talk about my mother and struggles she’s been through overcoming drugs and the struggles I’ve been through in the process of overcoming drugs and that gang lifestyle,” Muhammad said.
After bringing his mother onstage, Muhammad said, “What you are looking at right now is an example of what you can be. And what I mean by that is if I can turn my life around, you can, too.”
