A first-time NYC marathon runner’s special race goal: Advocate for gun violence prevention

By Claretta Bellamy, NBC

Trevon Bosley will be one of 50,000 people at the starting line of the TCS New York City Marathon on Sunday. But the motivation for his first 26.2 mile race is personal: to advocate for gun violence prevention.

In 2005, Bosley’s cousin Vincent Avant was shot and killed just down the street from his Chicago area home. Then in 2021, Bosley’s brother Terrell Bosley — an 18-year-old aspiring bass player — was shot and killed outside Lights of Zion Church in Chicago’s West Pullman neighborhood.

“It really shook up everything in the family,” Bosley said. The family stopped celebrating holidays and even listening to music. “We only started finding relief through doing prevention work.”

That work will deliver Bosley to the starting line at the foot of the Verrazano Bridge in Staten Island, New York. And now Bosley is raising funds and awareness for the gun control advocacy group March for Our Lives as part of Team Inspire — a group of 26 runners with varying levels of marathon experience — facilitated by New York Road Runners, which produces the marathon. Sunday’s 26.2 mile race comes less than one year after he picked up an interest in running. 

Bosley and his family have dedicated their lives to stopping gun violence and helping loved ones of those lost to it. Bosley previously served as a mentor for Chicago’s Bold Resistance Against Violence Everywhere (B.R.A.V.E.), which organizes talent shows, basketball tournaments and other events. Through his work, he met with victims of the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting to share stories about members’ gun violence experiences in Chicago. 

Read more about the Bosley’s activism against gun violence.

Discover how one Philly community wants to solve the issue.

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