Applications for the fourth annual Oyate Group  Brandon Hendricks Scholarship have officially opened, with an award of $20,000 going to each of two applicants for the first time in the scholarship’s history, organizers announced on March 2.

 

Previously, as reported, the organization offered $5,000 in total in scholarship funds. Founded in honor of Brandon Hendricks, a 17-year-old, rising basketball star, who, as reported was fatally shot in crossfire at 1726 Davidson Avenue in the Morris Heights section of The Bronx on June 28, 2020, the scholarship, according to Oyate Group officials, provides graduating seniors the opportunity Brandon never received, and creates a pathway for students to continue pursuing their educational and professional dreams.

 

Oyate Group officials say the organization aims to work directly with students and families to end the cycle of poverty and gun violence through holistic solutions such as the Brandon Hendricks Scholarship and its Beyond Rising Internship program for undocumented youth (for which applications close March 31).

In December 2021, 70 guns were turned in at a Wakefield gun buyback event in honor of Brandon.

 

As reported, Jacobi Medical Center was awarded $25,000 secured by District 18 City Council Member Amanda Farias in early February to support their ongoing Stand Up to Violence (SUV) cure violence program.

 

Meanwhile, locally, Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence (B.R.A.G.), a cure violence program, continues its work in the local community, as reported.

 

Eve Hendricks, Brandon’s mother, continues to work as an activist to promote anti-gun violence movements in The Bronx. Speaking at a previous anti-gun violence event, Hendricks said, “I still refuse to believe that my boy was taken from me like that – prematurely,” she said. “Someone who’s headed somewhere, so if you’re such gangsters, come out! Face us! Face me! Let’s have a one-to-one. Tell me why you have people killed. If you want to kill someone – kill yourself. You walk with guns? Walk with a pen, walk with a book. Give kids books, give kids pens, give kids hope.”