User:Maxim D. Weekes

Twin Rocks native Maxim "Max" Weekes was born November 19, 1970, to Maxim and Barbara (Lightcap) Weekes. He is a brother to Ronald and John, both of Nanty Glo; Donald, Ebensburg; Charles, Mercer; Matthew, Glendale Year Round (at Glendale Lake) and Dwayne, of Normal, Illinois.

Max is a 1990 graduate of Blacklick Valley High School where he excelled in sports and participated in community service activities. He was a member of the track team for four years, the football squad for two years, and the basketball team for one year. While a member of the track team in 1990, he broke two existing Blacklick Valley track records, one each in pole vaulting and the long jump. He was nominated by the members of his 1990 graduating class as Most Likely to Succeed.

While attending Blacklick Valley, Max was a member of Students Against Drunk Driving and he and a group of friends took it upon themselves to beautify the landscape along the Buelah Road by collecting litter. Prior to his 1992 enlistment in the Air Force, Max attended Cambria-Rowe Business College where he majored in business math and accounting. Divorced since 1997, Max is the father of two children, seven-year-old Austin and six-year-old Danielle, who live in Missouri with their mother.

Since his enlistment in the Air Force, Max has earned the rank of E-4 (Senior Airman) and is currently stationed at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, where he is the fuel supply coordinator for the 96th Supply Squadron. He does the accounting work and fuel inventory management for the squadron. In 1998-99, he was president of the Airman's Club at Eglin AFB, a civic/community-minded organization that conducts a wide variety of fund raisers: food drives, clothing drives, and others, to benefit the less fortunate.

His accounting and business math studies at Cambria Rowe Community College have proven valuable during his military career. While stationed at Eglin, Max, along with other service men and women, has volunteered to prepare income tax returns for anyone having military connections, whether active duty, retired, spousal, or dependent. In 2001 he and other members of the group helped prepare tax returns that netted 2.9 million dollars in tax refunds. "The income tax program has been in existence since 1992 and is available to all branches of the military," Max says.

As for hobbies, the outdoor life is to his liking; "I like hunting, fishing, and camping," he says. "I enjoy the Florida weather. The Florida panhandle where Eglin is located has those beautiful snow-white beaches..." Although a big fan of the year-round balmy Florida weather, he says, "I miss the beauty of snow...the fun I had as a kid playing in the snow. "My favorite memories of growing up in Twin Rocks are of hanging out with good friends and holidays with my family."

The Weekes family has many reasons to be proud of Max. Not only is he a dedicated and civic-minded son and brother, but a documented hero as well. This past summer, while on a beach outing in Florida, Max saved the life of Col. George "Bud" Day by alerting him of a fire on his boat and then jumping into the water to help him get to shore. Col. Day is a very highly decorated retired Air Force Colonel who spent five years as a POW during the Vietnam War.