BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — It was two in the morning. Antonio Gwynn was watching Facebook Live streams of police activity on Bailey Avenue in Buffalo. The 18-year-old Hutch Tech senior was struck by the amount the violence and destruction.
“I felt disgusted. My nerves were bad. They're destroying a city that could actually be very beautiful,” Gwynn said.
He got up and got dressed because, he said, he knew he had to do something.
“I went bought some trash bags grabbed my broom and my dustpan and I just started here,” said Gwynn, “It was just me by myself. I just started riding up and down Bailey to see where stuff was destroyed so I can clean it up.”
Kalah Bishop organized a group to come help out with the cleanup. When they arrived this morning at 10, they found the majority of the mess taken care of, and Antonio hard at work a full eight hours after he initially started cleaning.
“To know that an 18-year-old had it in his heart to come out here at two in the morning and clean up... and to be honest, he kind of risked his life to do it. That's amazing,” Bishop said.
“I wanted to clean because I'm always cleaning at my house so why can't I just help the city stay clean?” said
It's something he said he hopes would make his late mom proud. She passed away in 2018.
“It's something that she would do probably because I mainly try to be just like her or something similar because I don't want to be a follower. I want to lead sometimes also,” Gwynn said.
“A lot of people should take insight on him doing that and be more like Antonio,” said Bishop.
Antonio is hoping to attend college in the fall. A GoFundMeaccount has been set-up by Sweet Buffalo Rocks to help make his college dreams become reality.
