More than 140 people attended the 2nd Annual Peacekeepers Awards Ceremony on Saturday to celebrate the men and women who serve the Charlottesville and Albemarle County communities as firefighters, police officers, violence interrupters, and other first responders. 

This year, 37 students from area elementary, middle, and high schools were also recognized with a Peacekeepers Award for their actions to help keep their schools safe. 

The awards are given by the Public Engagement in Governance Looking, Listening, and Learning Laboratory (PEGLLLLab) at UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Thirteen first responders, both professionals and volunteers, received an award this year.

“We want to recognize all peacekeepers, who are often ‘out of sight and out of mind’ in serving our community,” said Brian N. Williams, a Batten professor and director and founder of the PEGLLLLab. “This event is designed to bring more attention to those heroes in our midst. We honor a variety of peacekeepers, including students in our schools, as well as first responders, credible messengers, and violence interrupters in our community.” 

This year’s keynote speaker was Sylvia Bennett Stone, executive director of Voices of Black Mothers United, who has been a tireless advocate for safer communities since losing her teenage daughter to gun violence in 2004. This February, her teenage grandson was shot and killed.  

“All of our communities need safety,” Stone said. “This is a community thing, not just an individual thing. We all have been a part of the problem that got us here, we all are the solution as well to make these changes.”

Murray Elementary School fifth-grader Jack Nemett was one of the young students who received a Peacekeepers Award. “When there’s a new student or a student who looks upset or something, I try to invite them to do what I’m doing or ask them what is happening, stuff like that,” he said.

PEGLLLLab assistants and UVA Batten students Chloe Alpert (BA ’25) and Joshua Williams (BA ’26) both were extensively involved in organizing the event, held at Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church’s Fellowship Hall. 

"We just want to help facilitate a lot more community engagement,” said Williams. “And I feel like this event is one of the best ways we can do it, getting younger people involved alongside police officers, firefighters, and community response members.”

“As much as our first responders are out there doing incredible things, this is the next generation of bringing change,” said Alpert. “They’re going to be the first responders. They’re also going to be the policy makers.”

The awards ceremony was part of a series of events hosted by the PEGLLLLab that included a K-12 Storytelling Workshop, an Authors Reading at the Albemarle Campus Boys & Girls Club of Central Virginia, a reception and dinner, and a private Mother’s Day “chat and chew” gathering with Stone and local mothers and grandmothers who have lost a loved one to gun violence. 

See news coverage of the Peacekeepers Awards event here and here.

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The PEGLLLLab wishes to thank the following for supporting these events through funding or in-kind contributions: 

• AK Classics, LLC
• Tra Battle, Battle Solutions
• Boys & Girls Club of Central Virginia
• Charlottesville Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
• Doubletree Charlottesville
• Epsilon Psi Member Boulé of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity
• Hi-Tech Signs, Awards, and Engravings
• InkWell Publishers, Inc.
• The Millennium Corp. – Ground Transportation
• Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church
• Raising Canes
• Sebastian Singh, UVA Batten Master of Public Policy ‘24
• Albert Stokes, Deputy Chief of Richmond Police Department
• The Soul Food Joint - Signature Soul
• Dr. Edward Tarlton, Higher Education & Learning Professional (HELP) Consulting
• UVA Gun Violence Solutions Project
• UVA Athletics