EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a four-part series to be featured this month in the Lake Oconee Breeze highlighting area volunteers and non-profit organizations that give back to the community. This week’s article offers a closer look at Mothers Against Crime and the group’s efforts in the community.



Mothers Against Crime has been in existence since 1992, but it stems in large part from the common sense approach of community that founder Georgia Smith holds dear.

“I started the organization back in 1992,” Smith said. “It was started because of the drug problem in the area known as the strip. I live one street over. It seemed like young people were being swayed to go the other way. We had two teenagers to get killed — one from Putnam County and one from Morgan. One was a classmate of my youngest daughter’s. Then, a young lady from Baldwin County got shot several months later. Twelve of us got together and thought ‘we need to take our streets back,’ so that’s what we did.”

The community organization, which began as an anti-crime group, has transformed into a community action driven agency that has in turn, transformed the people it affects. Each year, the group embarks on a number of service projects, all geared toward serving members of the population who are least able to speak for themselves.

“We have a banquet every May and always honor one or two people,” Smith said. “We have a guest speaker and the cost is always under $10 per person, but the banquet raises money for our huge youth rally at Oconee Springs Park. DNR [Georgia Department of Natural Resources] comes in and shows the kids how they patrol the lake and the Elks Club comes in with the drug wagon and provides informational literature. There are inspirational dances and it is just an all-day event that is so much fun.”

The group’s membership has grown by two from the original 12 to include 14 members who all meet and pay $5 monthly membership dues. They have developed a mission statement that punctuates the goal the group has set forth: “To promote harmony in the home, neighborhoods, schools and government as it relates to our community.”

Up next for the club Saturday is a combination Valentine’s Day and birthday party event for the residents of a local nursing home in Eatonton.

“We also have Christmas parties every year where we have traditional games and gifts for the children,” Smith said.

All the group members are also members of other civic organizations such as Eatonton Kiwanis, the Circle of Love Shelter for Women and Children, the Putnam County Domestic Violence Task Force, Eatonton Better Hometown and the group has put the Eatonton Putnam County Chamber of Commerce newsletter together for four years now. The overlap of volunteerism helps the group perform additional projects like co-sponsorship of a cookout for children living in area public housing, Grim Reality at Baldwin High School, and a crowning achievement, the annual award of four $500 scholarships to high school seniors who need the help going to college.

Smith will travel to Atlanta along with members of other organizations in other counties and a delegation from the Rural Development Council to address local delegations in the state legislature on Feb. 26.

“I’m going to be a lobbyist,” Smith said. “I want to talk to them about how these budget cuts are really affecting our seniors.”