Mentor uses personal experience as guidance for youths in Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – We’re heading into the summer months and while kids are out of school, they are in need of things to keep them on the right path and away from trouble.

We’ve spoken to organizations like Living in Purpose and The Manhood Tour, which are two examples of people trying to reach kids at a young age.

Aaron Kinzer is a facilitator with The Manhood Tour. His one-of-a-kind experience motivated him to do something to turn his life around so that others may learn from it.

He spent 13 years in federal prison. He was charged with several counts of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, crack cocaine and money laundering.

He says he was first introduced to drugs during his youth. By the time he was 21, he was a full-time drug dealer.

Kinzer says he lacked guidance, direction and stability, and carries with him a lot of the same problems many youth in our community face today.

While Kinzer was in prison, he wrote two books. A poem book titled, “Outside the Margin of Error,” and a children’s book titled, “All You Can Be.”

“It’s a collection of poems from a prisoner,” Kinzer read from “Outside the Margin of Error.” “That prisoner was me.”

At age 28, Kinzer says he was indicted by the federal government and later on, convicted and sentenced to over 15 years in federal prison for drug trafficking.

“I served 13 years and two months of that federal sentence. And during that time is when I was able to discover a passion and a purpose and work on changing myself,” he said.

He says he was able to find his way to Augusta due to his family relocating here.

“My brother relocated and he was a great support network while I was inside and we had promised that he was going to be one when I got out,” said Kinzer. “When he and his wife made a move to Augusta when he got out of the military, I made my move in my mind. I was coming here and changed my release address to Augusta, Georgia, and the rest is history.”

Kinzer says he was released to a halfway house here. Two months later, he went to house arrest with a GPS monitor. And on Aug. 2, 2023, he had an ankle monitor cut off and became a free man.

“What I’ve done and what I’ve experienced and what I’ve seen in my life and my walk, anyway I can use that as a tool to help people fix their lives and not go the route that I went. That is my mission. That is my purpose. And that is what I’m doing. And that’s what I’m living and striving to do every day that I wake,” said Kinzer.

As victims of crime seem to get younger and younger, Kinzer wants to reach the youth before they head down the path he once walked.

“They’re scared in their own neighborhoods. They’re scared in their own communities. I’ve seen those areas, I’ve been in those areas prior to me coming to prison, that’s what led me to prison is being in those areas and living that life,” he said.

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