Anti-violence group Ice the Beef has welcomed a new vice president, Ronisha Moore.
Moore joined the anti-violence group around 2008 while a third-grader at Troup School in the Education and Staged Arts after-school program. She hasn’t departed since.
Moore, who turns 20 today is currently pursuing nursing at Gateway Community College.
Ice the Beef President Chaz Carmon, a father figure to many youths in the program, took Moore under his wing when he saw her having a rough time in high school, where she was getting into fights. “I had to push her to use her voice rather her fist,” he said.
Carmon mentored Moore and pushed her to take on leadership roles in the group. Moore has been Ice the Beef’s youth president for more than two years.
During her freshman year of high school, Moore said, she committed herself to Ice the Beef’s quest of stopping street violence in New Haven. “I knew it before, but the older I got I realized we have to take action in our own streets,” she said.
Moore graduated from Hillhouse High School in 2019.
“I never took a break because as a kid I never got a break from hearing gunshots outside,” said Moore, who grew up in the Hill.
Courtesy of Ronisha Moore
Moore was a close friend of 14-year-old Tyrick Keyes, who was a victim to New Haven’s gun violence in 2017. After his death, Moore put on what she calls her “strong face” and helped organize a rally for Tyrick and to call for a stop to gun violence.
“It’s not easy to keep talking about people dying for no reason. The only way it will ever get easier is when people start helping,” she said.
Throughout high school, Moore became more and more vocal about what she believed in and her stance against gun violence. She would ask her teachers to come to rallies she helped plan and invited her friends to join Ice the Beef.
“It [Ice the Beef] means everything to me. I feel like fighting for our cause is my life,” Moore said.
As VP, a volunteer position, Moore is in the process of arranging rallies beyond New Haven. Hartford and Bridgeport are two areas she is looking to partner with in the near future. “The violence isn’t just in New Haven, so I want to bring our voices all over Connecticut,” she said.
“She’s been in every fight and at every table. As a young teenager she stepped up to being a part of every conversation,” Carmon said. “It just made sense.”
Carmon has watched Moore elevate the teenagers of the programs and push them to become leaders. “They listen and look up to her,” he said.
Carmon said he hopes to see Moore in his position as president one day.
“This shows our process. It works, just look at our new VP,” he said. “I’ve watched her go from a young lady who was really tough to be a young queen who can calm herself and others. She can no longer be antagonized.”