January 9, 2003 | Read Time: 2 minutes
When Emily Spencer and Shay Migl first met at Rosemont Middle School in Norfolk, Va., through an
afterschool program called Hands Without Guns, it was their differences that stood out. One was white, one was black; one was outgoing, the other was shy; and one grew up hearing gunshots in her neighborhood at night while the other had never been directly exposed to violence.
But they soon became fast friends through their shared concerns about handgun violence. “What concerned one naturally concerned the other,” says Gail Horne, executive director of Virginians Against Gun Violence, which sponsored Hands Without Guns, a program designed to keep kids away from gangs and guns by involving them in extracurricular activities and teaching them to resolve differences peacefully.
Over the years, the two girls stayed involved in the program, now renamed Y-Media. The two young women also helped to start a youth advisory council that brings together 20 student leaders from eight Norfolk schools to promote antiviolence messages among their peers.
What started as a volunteer effort for the girls has turned into a part-time job. “We realized that as these kids were doing more and more, they deserved to be paid for their work,” says Joshua Horwitz, executive director of the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, a national group in Washington that has paid the girls a salary for the past year.
Now seniors in high school, Emily and Shay visit several schools a week to help run Y-Media chapters. The two girls have helped the chapters put together pep rallies, poster contests, videos, and radio advertisements aimed at getting out the message that guns are dangerous and should be avoided. They also lead students in workshops aimed at building problem-solving and conflict-resolution skills.
“Even now they have different strengths,” says Ms. Horne. “Shay is meticulous and Emily is the creative one, and they feed off of each other in that way.”
In September, the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence honored the two girls with its annual Robert F. Kennedy-Martin Luther King Jr. Award, which recognizes people for their work to end gun violence.
