On Wednesday, December 15 Mayor Lester Miller paid a visit to his alma mater to speak with students at Southwest High School. Mayor Miller’s goal was to hear from students about what the County could do to keep them safe and help them achieve their goals in life. 

“I’m a Southwest Patriot through and through and it’s an honor to be here today as Mayor to speak to you all,” Mayor Miller told the students. “In order to move our community forward, we need you all involved. You are important, the next generation, and we care about you.” 

After introducing himself, Mayor Miller gave an update on his Macon Violence Prevention (MVP) strategic plan, which he unveiled last week. Then he took questions and comments from students. Many students brought up ideas to help tackle violence in our community. A few of them agreed that they want to have more supervised activities for kids and teenagers to get involved with. Others mentioned having more deputies patrolling neighborhoods, which is part of the MVP strategic plan.  

“It was great to hear from these students about these important issues happening in our community,” said Mayor Miller. “A lot of them had ideas that were very similar to the adults we have spoken to. It was a great conversation and I am so impressed by how involved they were.”

Students were also given more information about Macon Mental Health Matters and the free counseling offered through this initiative.