Honoring Lloyd

Sixth-graders in Warren dedicated a tree and a bench in tribute of the boy who would have turned 12 Friday.

By ELISE McKEOWN SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

WARREN — It would have been Lloyd McCoy Jr.’s 12th birthday Friday. He should have been eating cake and opening presents. Or doing what his mother says he loved — fishing.

Instead, his fellow classmates spent Friday honoring his memory. In the courtyard of Willard K-8 School, where McCoy was a sixth-grader, the kids listened as the choir sang “Happy Birthday” and then as a bench and a tree were dedicated in McCoy’s name.

In April, Lloyd was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting as he sat on a couch in his sister’s Wick Street Southeast home.

He won’t be forgotten, however.

Carole Betz, guidance counselor, charged this sixth-grade class, and those to come, with maintaining the garden.

“Every year, the sixth-grade class will be responsible for adding to the garden,” she said. “I hope to make this a beautiful and incredible garden paradise for all our students to honor him.”

“We have our work cut out for us,” she acknowledged, but encouraged them to make it their project.

The ceremony also included the presentation of flowers for the garden by McCoy’s family members and soloists Mikesia Parker and A’Drean Bennett singing the R. Kelly hit “I Believe I Can Fly” with the sixth-grade choir. At the end of the ceremony, students released blue and white balloons.

“I think that we should remember the great things that we shared with Lloyd,” said his classmate and baseball and football teammate, Romando Alexander. “Lloyd was a great kid, and I want to wish him a happy birthday.”

To honor Lloyd’s memory, Ed Ashcroft, Willard principal, asked the sixth-grade class to take a stand against violence.

“Our students at Willard can make a difference,” he said. “We have so many wonderful and capable students here at Willard. It only takes a few to make a difference and others will follow.”

He encouraged the students to do as Lloyd would have done: deal with problems in a peaceful manner.

“He always tried to find a solution to things, other than violence,” said Lloyd’s mother, Pamela McCoy. “That’s something that we tried to instill in all of our kids.”

Lloyd’s death has impacted all of the students at Willard, she added. “I think it makes them more aware of what violence actually does.”

Majestic Jackson sat next to Lloyd in band, where he played French horn and she plays trumpet.

“Sometimes I wish he was still here,” she said.

The ceremony helped, though, she said, because “everybody can remember him and everybody will know that he’ll always be in our hearts.”