Shemuel Sanders suffered a tragic loss and channeled his life-changing experience into an opportunity to help others.
Shemuel Sanders suffered a tragic loss last June when his daughter, Shemilah, became the victim of a fatal shooting in their hometown of Decatur, Illinois.
Sanders, who often served as an informal mentor to youth in the Decatur middle school where he works, felt compelled, now more than ever, to do more.
“I never want another parent to have to feel what I’m feeling,” says Sanders, who does landscaping work during the summers.
“So I started small–pulling a few young men into my landscaping work and paying them for their time.”
That is how the seeds of Shemilah’s Outreach Center were sown. Once the community heard about what Sanders was doing, his phone wouldn’t stop ringing with calls from parents and young men who wanted to be involved.
In just a few weeks his landscaping program, which started with 10 young men, quickly grew to 70 — the maximum number of participants that donations to the program could support.
For a month, the men did two hours of landscaping a day, had a meal together and heard from male role models who Sanders invited to speak to the group.
When they returned to school in the fall, Sanders refocused his outreach on helping the men navigate e-learning and recruiting a team of retired teachers who volunteered their time to help students who were struggling outside of a traditional school setting.
This year, the program has grown to include 200 young men and women and many more offerings for the youth, who can now learn forensic science taught by the local police department, take music or dance classes, and of course, continue to participate in the popular landscaping program.
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Provided photo.
The only limitation to the growth of the program is funding. Sanders continues to fundraise to be able to support more participants.
“I’ve had to turn youth away, and that kills me,” says Sanders. “I believe I could easily reach 1,000 youth with the community’s support — there is that much need for this work.”
To learn more or find out ways you can support Shemilah’s Outreach Center, visit https://www.shemilahsoutreach.org/ and to find volunteer opportunities in your community, visit www.createthegood.org.
To hear Shemuel’s story and more stories like this, subscribe to the “Creating the Good with AARP Illinois” podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.