The founder of a Greenwood-based nonprofit organization is planning to provide enrichment activities for youth this summer as well as scholarships for senior Leflore County band students in the fall.
“My organization’s sole purpose is to help improve our community while giving a positive impact, an influence, on the lives of youth,” said Altorean Spruell, the founder of Greenwood Men United.
Spruell, 51, a personal trainer, along with other men in his organization — including professionals, ex-convicts and “everyday working guys” — are aiming to enrich the lives and experiences of local young people, he said.
Spruell formed his nonprofit in the summer of 2018, months after he was released on parole from a 10-year term in federal prison following a conviction for criminal intent to distribute methamphetamine.
At the time he lived in Phoenix and was working in banking as a collections professional.
While doing time behind bars, first in California and then in Yazoo City, Spruell stayed up to date with the news in his hometown of Greenwood by reading the Commonwealth and was alarmed by the surge in homicides and other violent crime.
He aimed to come back to his hometown to make it a better place.
When Spruell got back to Greenwood, the time he split between helping out other community organizations, such as the Mississippi Delta Ceasefire Initiative or Operation Peace Treaty, as well as the hours he worked at his old job, in Viking Range’s maintenance department, meant he didn’t have as much time to dedicate to his own organization.
However, since he started working as a personal trainer earlier this year, he’s been able to carve out more time for his organization.
From June 7 to June 15, he’ll provide a summer camp for youth ages 12 to 17.
The children will exercise in the morning, learn life enrichment skills in the mid-afternoon, watch engaging movies such as the civil rights documentary “Eyes on the Prize” and have a discussion afterward.
In addition, Spruell said guest speakers, such as ex-convicts, will take time to talk with the kids.
The youth camp will “enrich the mind, body and the soul,” he said.
Come fall, Spruell said, his organization aims to provide three senior high school band students each with a $500 scholarship for college. The band scholarship is in honor of the late Nathan “Tootie” Jackson, who was head band director at Threadgill High School.
When the Greenwood schools integrated in 1970, Jackson decided to accept a position at Greenwood High as an assistant band director rather than taking a job at a predominantly Black school.
Jackson, who was Black, took the job at Greenwood High in order to ensure that Black band students there “had a voice” as well as an equal opportunity to earn scholarships, Spruell said.
Jackson died of a heart attack in 1990. He was 54.
“He was very instrumental in the integration of the Greenwood public school system in 1970,” Spruell said.
Those who would like more information about Greenwood Men United or want to get involved can contact Spruell at 644-6460 or altoreanspruell@gmail.com.
-Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
