Michelle Loubon

Bel­mont res­i­dent Ralph Max­imin and mem­bers of the Bel­mont North West Team will be stag­ing a peace walk through the streets of Bel­mont on In­de­pen­dence Day.

Max­imin, who con­test­ed the lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion on be­half of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship and lost, says he want­ed to con­tin­ue to con­tribute to youth de­vel­op­ment in the ur­ban com­mu­ni­ty. He said he al­so was in­spired by the out­reach ef­fort of his un­cle, the late George "Tam­bi" Max­imin. The se­nior Max­imin was a founder of Re­birth House–a fa­cil­i­ty meant to re­store the bro­ken lives of sub­stance abusers. He said: "I saw the work Tam­bi was do­ing. It re­al­ly meant a lot to him to pick up drug abusers and give them some hope, mean­ing and a place to rest. The next ma­jor step was help­ing them re­cov­er from drug ad­dic­tion." Max­imin al­so said he hoped to con­tin­ue pos­i­tive work in the Bel­mont com­mu­ni­ty.

The com­mu­ni­ty has pro­duced sev­er­al promi­nent cit­i­zens, in­clud­ing Sir El­lis Clarke. Max­imin added: "I pledge to im­prove the in­fra­struc­ture in the com­mu­ni­ty, as­sist in re­duc­tion of crime in the area by bring­ing po­lice and com­mu­ni­ty to­geth­er and in­volve the youth in the de­vel­op­ment of the com­mu­ni­ty through sports." He said there were plans to in­tro­duce as­sis­tance in the ar­eas of ed­u­ca­tion, a Bel­mont sports and cul­ture acad­e­my, main­te­nance and skills bank, a re­lief fund for the needy and to open com­pa­nies in con­struc­tion, se­cu­ri­ty, agri­cul­ture and cater­ing. Max­imin said he al­so was re­quest­ing as­sis­tance from peo­ple in ar­eas like re­fresh­ments, T-shirts, rental of chairs, tents and sound sys­tems.

He said they would ap­pre­ci­ate any as­sis­tance and do­na­tion that would be ren­dered in the spir­it of love and uni­ty. He has in­vit­ed all cit­i­zens to come on board and join in the walk. Among those ex­pect­ed to take part in the walk are mem­bers of the Bel­mont Or­phan­age, Re­birth House, Boys Scouts and St Jude's Home. It starts at 10 am at the Bel­mont Park.

Peo­ple wish­ing to as­sist can con­tact Max­imin at 773-5757 (c) or 379-7381(c)