Watch the report from WTVR CBS 6 Photojournalist Joe Valdez in the video player above.
RICHMOND, Va. -- A Central Virginia father and son have found a unique way to bring awareness to the city's gun violence and to teach valuable life skills with boxing Saturday.
The third annual Gloves Over Guns amateur boxing event, which was started by Coach Pat and his son, Malik, of the East End Boxing Club, aims to raise awareness about gun violence and teach critical life skills.
"We don't have a solution for all the gun violence but we just try to, you know, show ways of awareness to the kids and let them know there's other ways to solve things and we use gloves instead of picking up a gun," Pat said.
"We know that young people have a lot of things built up in them and just the physical activity of boxing and the mindset that you have to have, the concentration of boxing is not just fighting," Sheriff Irving said.
Richmond Sheriff Antionette Irving's Peace and Solidarity walk leads into the event, so she partners with the East End Boxing Club.
"We want everybody to know that we want the violence to stop. We want to live in peace, we want to work in peace and we have to build our rapport with the individuals in the city and in our community," Irving said.
"I want the local community to understand and the local officials to understand that there's no jurisdiction fore the crime so I don't want to say because you're in Henrico or you're in Richmond, Chesterfield, all of it leaks into each other, so if we're teaching the kids not to be territorial, we shouldn't be," Pat said.
For more information, call 804-382-7788 or check out the boxing club's Instagram account.
