During the recent New York Harlem Gospel Review performance at the Plaza Arts Center, 84 students from the Greene and Putnam counties public schools were on hand for a most motivational journey through the evolution of gospel music. The students are part of the LOCC Youth Academy (formerly known as Lake Oconee Summer Youth Program).

Avis Williams, pastor of LOCC Community Transformation, runs the summer youth program which is sponsored in part by LOCC (Lake Oconee Community Church). The program is in its third year and includes four-week academies in Greensboro, Putnam and Union Point. After the ‘formal’ academy concludes each summer, the youth who attended the program, continue to be mentored and encouraged by Williams and other academy supporters. The children’s progress (grades) is monitored through each report card period and the children earn trips and other recognition by raising their overall grade average by one full grade level.

As part of their experience in going to the Harlem Gospel Review, the children were given a tour back stage and met the members of the NY performers.  All children joined the rest of the audience in clapping, dancing up and down the aisles to this spirit-filled – high energy event. At some point in the performance, the children joined hands while the Gospelive Revue performed “Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand” — a most appropriate song for the youth group and those who lead them — as Williams and her team ‘touch the lives and development of the children’  as did the music of the NY Gospelive Revue.

For more information on the LOCC Youth Academy, contact Avis Williams at (404) 379-5561