MILLVILLE – When a random act of gunfire claimed the life of Maurice “Reese” Lewis, his friends and family pledged that the teen’s compassion would be his legacy.
“We all realized that something needed to change,” said Stephanie Risley, 21, of Millville, a longtime friend of Lewis. “For someone so innocent, who wasn’t involved in anything bad, who never hurt a fly, for something like that to happen, we were all just shocked.”
“We don’t want to lose anyone else the same way we lost Reese or have anyone else go through what we went through,” Risley said.
They channeled their anguish into action launching the nonprofit “Our Future First” and focused on opening a youth center for middle school and high school teens who they see as overlooked and underserved.