IN­NIS FRAN­CIS

En­ter­tain­er Damion Melville con­tin­ues to keep the can­dle of char­i­ty lit through the lega­cy of his daugh­ter, De­mi Melville, by nur­tur­ing the hearts and tal­ents of oth­er young girls and boys.

Through fundrais­ing events, Melville hosts the De­mi Melville En­ter­tain­ment Con­cert three times a year, show­cas­ing the tal­ents of chil­dren while rais­ing funds to help oth­ers.

De­mi died in 2008 at the age of ten.

More than 20 young­sters took to the stage at the Pleas­antville Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre for the gospel con­cert on Au­gust 23. The event was streamed live, at­tract­ing view­ers from around the world who pledged fi­nan­cial sup­port.

All pro­ceeds from the show will go to­wards help­ing the homes of “less for­tu­nate chil­dren” in Trinidad.

In mem­o­ry of De­mi’s short but giv­ing life, Melville stages the con­certs as a way of ho­n­our­ing her self­less­ness. Dur­ing her life­time, De­mi gave school sup­plies and ham­pers to chil­dren in need, while al­so demon­strat­ing a will­ing­ness to share what she had with oth­ers.

The ini­tia­tive al­so cre­ates a plat­form for young tal­ents to de­vel­op their abil­i­ties in song, dance and in­stru­men­tal artistry.

De­mi is re­mem­bered as a lov­ing and car­ing child who, dur­ing her for­ma­tive years, would share her per­son­al be­long­ings with friends whom she be­lieved need­ed them more than she did.

The seed she sowed through her hu­mil­i­ty has left a last­ing im­pact on her fa­ther, en­cour­ag­ing him to con­tin­ue host­ing pro­grammes in her ho­n­our.

Melville said since the se­ries of pro­duc­tions be­gan in 2021, the ini­tia­tive has made a sig­nif­i­cant im­pact on the lives of more than 40 fam­i­lies.

Lend­ing moral sup­port to the young per­form­ers were en­ter­tain­ers Tiny, An­tho­ny G, Sandy and Murice Mar­shall, along with 2026 World Cham­pi­onships of the Per­form­ing Arts gold and sil­ver medal­list Asha Tidd, who per­formed Good­ness of God.