The LYSOA held their inaugural Gala Fundraiser at the Gannon Municipal Golf Course on Saturday. (Photo by Paula Muller)
By Harold Rivera
LYNN–Five years ago, Antonio Gutierrez and Teresa DiGregorio founded the Lynn Youth Street Outreach Advocacy (LYSOA) organization with the goal of providing help for high-risk youth in the community.
Saturday night, the organization held its inaugural Gala Fundraiser at the Gannon Municipal Golf Course.
“We’ve done a lot of fundraisers. We’ve done spaghetti dinners in the past and everybody comes out for those,” Gutierrez said. “But this is huge. We haven’t done anything in like this. It’s not about us, it’s about these young people.”
Gutierrez, a Latino of Dominican background, added, “we’re just trying to change the course of time for these young kids.”
A handful of elected officials were on hand to support LYSOA at the event, including Lynn Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy, Lynn Police Chief Kevin Coppinger and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Salem), who was the fundraiser’s keynote speaker.
Gutierrez shared his appreciation for Moulton’s support.
“It’s huge (to have Moulton’s support),” Gutierrez said. “Somebody needs to see what’s going on. Lynn has gotten such a bad rap, that it’s a drug city and that it’s a gang city. Somebody is finally listening.”
Gutierrez added, “they need to hear up there, what’s going on down here. When people come together to form a community for our kids, look what happens.”
Moulton spoke of the admiration he has for the work LYSOA has done over the past five years to help high-risk youth in Lynn. A former Marine Corps officer who served four tours in the Iraq war, Moulton noted that he shares the same passion for community outreach that he sees in organizations like LYSOA.
“People talk about trying to get involved or wanting to find ways to get involved in the community,” Moulton said, “but this is an organization that actually does it.”
Moulton added, “(when I was elected) I said that I’d make Lynn a priority not because there are problems, but because there is potential.”
The fundraiser also featured two young adults – Leeanah Betancourt and Joshua Blanco – who shared their success stories thanks to their involvement with LYSOA. Both Betancourt and Blanco obtained their GEDs and turned their lives around with help from the organization. They were each awarded certificates of achievement by Gutierrez and DiGregorio.
With success stories like those of Betancourt and Blanco, Gutierrez has seen LYSOA grow since the organization was founded in 2011.
“I don’t think there’s many people that don’t know us,” Gutierrez said. “Between television, newspaper articles, face to face, block to block, kid by kid, word of mouth, everybody knows the tall, slim Latino with the blue Yankees hat and the white shirt.”
Gutierrez, a former gang member who was raised in inner city New York, now lives to share his story with Lynn’s youth.
“I want to give back to our young people,” Gutierrez said. “They’re our future. Without them where do we stand?”
The fundraiser ended with a raffle that included a pair of tickets to an upcoming Patriots game, and a handful of sports memorabilia items.