Mary-Pat Hector may be young, but she’s beyond her years when it comes to understanding the world.  Hector is now a 19 year old junior at Spelman College in Atlanta, but she’s been working to end gun violence in her community for years.  Hector says she was tired of hearing about kids dying from gunshot wounds and wanted to do something about it.  She started “Think Twice,” a campaign aimed at encouraging people to think twice before they pick up a gun and pull the trigger.  She says when people think of gun violence, they may think it can’t happen to them.

“But to become uncomfortable with that, to be moved to action, you have to see yourself.  I wanted to create billboards so that people could see themselves, to see it happening to them.”  But despite her hard work, funding for a billboard campaign just wasn’t there.  Then Hector heard about an organization called “Peace First” that was offering a $50,000 prize for submitting a compelling video explaining your mission.  She not only submitted a video, she took that grand prize!

It was enough to fund nearly 50 billboards around the metro Atlanta area to display her anti gun violence message.  Hector said she was proud of that achievement and people really started to take notice of her mission and she was asked to speak to various groups and organizations.

But she didn’t stop there.  She also got the attention of the Allstate Foundation.  They took her message to Chicago and put it on billboards there as well.  Hector says that came as a complete surprise.  She was shocked to travel to the windy city and see her image and message on billboards there.  “I was taken aback. It’s still in the beginning stages, but we’re really excited.  Really, really excited,” Hector said.

She’s not the only activist in her family.  Her parents were also champions for various causes as well and she credits her mother with teaching her that “Good starts young.”