National Representative, Srikar Chiravuri (left) and Outreach Coordinator, Tru Ajani (right). Photo courtesy of The Cream.
Since 2017, The Cream Incorporated, an 501c3 non-profit organization, has been helping out economical and moral edification of all individuals that reside in urban communities. Their main mission is to promote superior scholarship as basic and intellectual achievement. They prioritize their partnership with other organizations for concern over maintenance of high moral and social standards of the urban community.
The Cream consists of three chapters: The Knowledge Chapter of Ypsilanti, The Wisdom Chapter of Inkster and the Understanding Chapter of Detroit. Each chapter was created to help protect, grow and sustain urban areas. Although these three cities are focuses of The Cream, all urban areas are still prioritized.
Last month, Ypsilanti’s chapter of The Cream hosted an event buying back stolen or illegally-purchased guns with no questions asked. The buyback was held at the Ypsilanti Community Church on Aug. 24. The Cream used a GoFundMe page, along with the Ypsilanti Police Department, to help host the event.
“This wasn’t some kind of anti Second Amendment, this was more so directed to the isolated situations in Ypsilanti,” said Tru Ajani, outreach coordinator for The Cream. "A lot of the gun violence that took place from the beginning of the year to now was perpetrated by younger people, people who aren’t supposed to have guns and people that aren’t protected by the Second Amendment. The event was very successful.”
The GoFundMe page raised more than $1,000 for the buyback which allowed them to offer up to $300 for semi-automatic handguns and up to $700 for semi-automatic rifles.
Photo courtesy of The Cream.
The Cream tries to do events like these frequently. “We just came off of a food donation and phone service donation in Inkster,” said Mwai Leonard, the national president of The Cream.
“The food drive was a collaboration event between us and another organization,” said Srikar Chiravuri, national representative of The Cream. "At the events, we try to promote our future plans. We address any public concerns on our plans as well. We try to show the public that by being a good citizen of the community with civic engagement, they can understand the process and policies that affect them at a local level but also understand they everyone is more than just a vote.”
The Cream plans to partner with Educate Youth Ypsilanti, an organization that deals with helping out any youth in Ypsilanti. The Cream will be going into certain schools around Ypsilanti, primarily high schools, and teach a 10-week-course. They will be teaching the student business development, financial and literacy planning. It will start in the first week of November. The course will be primarily taught by Ajani.
The Cream hopes to further help out urban communities and Ypsilanti will continue to be one of their focuses.
For more information on The Cream, visit https://www.thecream.org
National Representative, Srikar Chiravuri (left) and Outreach Coordinator, Tru Ajani (right). Photo courtesy of The Cream.
