Lion’s Jotham Reubel and Gary Martin with Atlanta City Councilmember, Kwanza Hall at the YoBoulevard Kickoff Evening
February 11, 2015
The Atlanta Lions Club participated in the kickoff evening for the 2015 YoBoulevard. The Old Fourth Ward (O4W) is one of intown Atlanta’s rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, and one of its most historic. The very seat of the American civil rights movement, the Old Fourth Ward boasts Ebenezer Baptist Church and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. Nearby, many of the Old Fourth Ward’s factories are becoming lofts, businesses, restaurants and bars.
But through the middle of O4W runs Boulevard, a corridor infamous for its Section 8 housing and street drug sales. More than 600 kids, 19 or younger, live along the Boulevard corridor, and almost half of them live below the poverty line. We often drive through the Old Fourth Ward oblivious to these children, but they represent the future of the Old Fourth Ward, its bordering neighborhoods and the entire city of Atlanta.
The Atlanta Lions Club is partnering with Kwanza Hall and the Year of Boulevard to provide free vision screening for preschool and school age children of the neighborhood.