Peace, love message at Youngstown Peace Walk

Peace walk

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East Side. West Side. North Side. South Side.

People, from seniors to mothers with toddlers and infants in baby carriages, to young black men, came from all over the city to be part of the inaugural Youngstown Peace Walk and Bonfire Sunday under the Market Street Bridge in, as one speaker said, “the physical and symbolic heart of the city.”

About 100 came to share stories, for fellowship, to give and receive love and hold hands and be part of changing Youngstown.

Or as Macalise Feagins of Austintown, who brought her sons, 6 years and 3 months, to the event said: “I was born and raised in Youngsown. I love Youngstown, but I’m ready to see some change. I want it better for my boys,” she said.

Feagins described Sunday’s event as a “good first step” toward changing the culture of violence in the city, Everybody is ready for that change, she said.

“Our country is kind of haywire right now. I’d like to see our city come together,” she said.

“This is the first of many such gatherings,” predicted Jennifer Rodriguez, a senior journalism major at Youngstown State University, who was covering Sunday’s event for The Jambar, the university’s newspaper. ‘A lot of people want changes and chances,” she said.

“I love it,” the Rev. Jeffrey Stanford, pastor of Beulah Baptist Church, said of the Peace Walk and Bonfire.

“Its always a good thing for Youngstown to come together. Every side of town is represented here,” the Rev. Mr. Stanford said.

The Youngstown Peace Walk and Bonfire is a serious effort to reduce crime and create unity in the city, said Keland Logan, event organizer and executive director of Youngstown’s The Colony, a nonprofit organization the focus of which, according to its Facebook page, is to “take ownership and responsibility over maintaining and strengthening the standard for the community as a whole.”

“Despite our differences, we need to come together and trust and believe in each other, This is a meeting of the mind group. It’s time to put down guns and love each other,” Logan said.

“We need to find a way to love and encourage our youth,” said Youngstown 1st Ward Councilman Julius Oliver.

“Right now, the city is going up and we want to keep it going that way,” Oliver said.

Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally III echoed Oliver’s sentiment.

Youngstown is starting to develop upward momentum, and it is meetings such as this that will help keep that momentum going, the mayor said.

“Youngstown is going to recreate itself. Take that message back to your friends and homes,” McNally urged Peace Walk participants.

State Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-58, of Youngstown said the Youngstown Peace Walk and Bonfire was particularly meaningful because it is a “grassroots ground swell. We need these kinds of efforts to move us forward. It was awesome,” she said.