The mother of slain Police Officer Aréanah Preston has launched a fundraising campaign to build a community center in her daughter’s honor to “provide a safe place and support for Chicago’s youth.”
The center will provide mental health counselors, promote careers in law enforcement, feature gun violence prevention activities and offer scholarships, according to a GoFundMe page created by Dionne Mhoon.
“Aréanah was a community person,” Mhoon told the Sun-Times. “So what better way to celebrate her and remember her name than by doing something for the community?”
The goal of the fundraising campaign is $150,000. Ideally, the center will be in the 5th Ward where the family lives and where Mhoon says local officials have been supportive.
The mother said she hopes to also use money raised through GoFundMe to start a scholarship for young people interested in careers in law or public safety, like her daughter.
“As a parent, I see there’s a need for mental health, helping people get GEDs, clothes giveaways (and) entrepreneurial classes,” Mhoon said. “(I’m) just trying to take this tragic situation that I have in front of me and turn it into some type of triumph, some kind of positivity.”
At her daughter’s funeral last week, Mhoon said she planned to “lead, love and be just like you — brave and bold with a warm spirit and a contagious smile.”
“Death is only a tragic thing if you have not lived. My baby lived,” she said to applause inside the church. “I pray for peace in homes. I pray for peace in our communities, and I pray for peace in my heart.
Preston was fatally wounded early May 6 after exchanging gunfire with a group of robbers as she returned home from her shift, still wearing her police uniform.
Four teenagers have been charged with the killing. After the teen’s first court hearing, Mhoon told reporters she felt sorry for the suspects because “nobody told them you were loved, nobody told them you can do anything.”
Preston was set to graduate with a master’s degree from Loyola University School of Law just a week after the shooting. The family and Preston’s Chicago Police Department partner crossed the stage instead.
Family, friends and colleagues have remembered Preston as someone with big dreams who wanted to make a difference. She had set her sights on the FBI and had one final interview left.
