ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - A former gang leader in Albany started a free summer camp to help kids with any behavioral problems they may have.

Travis Luke spent years in a gang and has turned his life around to mentor other young individuals to prevent them from heading on the same path. Luke is the founder of ONXUS, a grassroots summer camp in Albany designed to help children who have been kicked out of other programs or can’t afford them. The camp is completely free and is run by volunteers. Currently, with the help of a few donors, the camp is funded out of Luke’s own pocket.

On some days, it is hard for Luke to get basic resources like food and snacks, but he says with the help of his family he makes it work.

“The parents are not worried about if my child is eating, parents are worried about if my child is going to come back with a different attitude, are they going to come back behaving better,” said Luke. “They are not worried about if I’m going to feed them kids, they know them kids fed.”

Luke credits his past with being involved with a gang on the reason why he is able to help mentor the kids in his camp. This allows him to provide different resources like financial literacy and different trades. He also makes it a priority to implement his daily mental health check-ins.

Right now, Luke is the camp’s only consistent financial supporter. A few people donate food or money, but it’s not nearly enough to sustain the camp or keep him from falling behind personally. He hopes that the community can see him for more than his past and come together to help the camp out.

“Basically, the same past that everyone beats me down about is the same past that allows me to step in between two people who want to kill each other and calm it down,” Luke said. “So, you’re judging me for the best tool I’ve got and that’s my past.”

There are still five more weeks left in this summer’s camp, but Luke hopes he can turn ONXUS into a full-year after-school program.

If you would like to help or support ONXUS you can visit ONXUS.org for more information.

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