Last Monday, World LOLEI Inc. Hosted The 9th Youth Empowerment Thanksgiving Dinner
World LOLEI Incorporation, SA Rising Stars and the Prince Hall Masonic Affiliates, partnering with Anne Marie Catering and Events, hosted the 9th Annual Youth Empowerment Thanksgiving Dinner held at the Anne Marie’s Event Hall.
More the 150 families enjoyed a pre-Thanksgiving meal consisting of turkey and ham with all the fixings.
We are always happy to see families attend this event, said World LOLEI Vice President Detrick Williams. This is what we do for our community. We are very proud to host the event and very grateful to our volunteers who came out to help make this event successful.
Charles Sattiewhite, president/CEO of SA Rising Stars, Inc., shared his experiences growing up and being incarcerated.
“Our mission is to empower, uplift, and to breathe life into you,” said Sattiewhite, whose son was murdered in 2023. “God breathed life into us, so now it’s time for us to breathe life into our community. This is what we do.”
Special guests this year were several students from Robb Elementary School and Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) staff.
“We truly love Uvalde and the youth of Uvalde,” said Anne Marie Espinoza, director of Communications and Marketing for Uvalde CISD. “We spend countless hours making sure we bring them to special events such as this. There is no secret about the tragedies that we have experienced. We are on year three, and the road to recovery is not a straight road.”
According to Espinoza, who was accompanied by AEAP Specialist Samantha Silva, receiving special invitations to attend events such as the Youth Empowerment Thanksgiving Dinner lets them know that they are not alone and that they are receiving prayers from around the world.
The Youth Empowerment Thanksgiving Dinner is part of Uvalde CISD’s innovative District Leadership Initiative, which aims to empower students from Robb Elementary through transformative leadership-building strategies. This initiative focuses on developing leadership skills among students directly impacted by the Robb tragedy.
“It’s been a journey,” said Executive Chef Milas Williams, president/CEO of World LOLEI, who gave a brief account of his younger life which led him to be incarcerated along with his brother Detrick. “We were looking for leaders, we were looking for healing, we were looking for love, and we were all looking in all the wrong places.”
According to Williams, the youth of today are not the youth of yesterday.
“The youth today are dealing with way more heavier situations than we as adults could ever imagine from human trafficking to cyberbullying,” said Williams. “God gave us the vision nine years ago to give back to our communities and youth, and that is what we are going to do.”
Story and photos by: Burrell Parmer/WORLD LOLEI, Inc.
