Deep in the heart of the McKinley neighborhood lies a small, modest warehouse filled to the brim with bicycles — the Front Yard Bikes Shop. The shop may not be gorgeous, but the local children who frequent the garage are more interested in its contents.
To gain awareness and funding for this budding campaign, Front Yard Bikes is teaming up with REVO, another nonprofit organization that raises money for a variety of causes, to host a local hip-hop showcase at Mud and Water on Friday.
Dustin LaFont, University alumnus and Front Yard Bikes founder, started this nonprofit organization with the intention of teaching people, mostly youths, how to fix and maintain their bikes. He also tries to instill values into the malleable minds of children like work ethic, anti-theft lessons, community development and brotherhood.
LaFont said Front Yard Bikes’ mission is inspired by the Christian parable of “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
LaFont said Front Yard Bikes, true to its name, started in his front yard while he was living on Wyoming Street, although he never actually planned on creating a grassroots organization during its inception.
He said a neighborhood boy asked him if he could help him repair his broken-down bicycle. The bike was too damaged to salvage, but LaFont said his roommate had an unassembled spare bike. “I said, ‘look, I have this bike that’s in parts. If you put it together with me, I’ll show you what to do. You put it together though, and you can earn it. But you’re gonna work.’ And he said ‘all right, that’s a good deal,’” LaFont said.
From there, the boy brought back his siblings, cousins and then their cousins’ cousins. Word spread, and the rest is history.
Even with such close proximity, the University area doesn’t feel like a welcoming neighborhood to many citizens of the McKinley community, according to LaFont.
“We have this poor community that’s getting angry that students are taking their place, that leasers don’t want to give houses to the poor, black community. They want to give them to the college kids,” LaFont explained.
LaFont said one of the auxiliary goals of Front Yard Bikes is to bridge the gap between the campus community and the McKinley residents.
“Hopefully this will bridge the relationship we have between college-age young adults and neighborhood kids who need mentors, who need to see that young professional life and see people succeeding in academics that they can model themselves after and not just think college is a place next door. It’s a place they can go. It’s a place they’ll belong to,” LaFont said.
Matt Bruce, University alumnus and founder of the REVO Baton Rouge chapter, said REVO often participates in fundraisers to promote change for issues affecting third-world countries, but this will be the first fundraiser for a local campaign.
Bruce said he got behind the cause because he knows the importance of children being involved with something and the impact it can make on all aspects of their lives.
“What Dustin is doing, helping these kids out, you know, is not only good because they’re learning these skills to fix up bikes, it’s just good for kids to be involved with something,” Bruce said.
While visiting high schools with the organization Invisible Children, Bruce said the principal told them the students who were involved with the Invisible Children club also started improving their grades and overall scholastic performance.
Bruce helped select the artists who will be performing the fundraiser based on talent and their passion for activism.
One of the hip-hop artists is Baton Rouge native Marcel P. Black. He said he’s a fan of REVO and helping out his community in general.
“As a person who lives, works and creates music for the people in the community, it’s only right that I’m a part of a fundraiser that’s going towards something positive for young brothers and sisters in Baton Rouge,” Black said in an email.
The line-up also includes local talent such as Truth Universal with DJ EF Cuttin’, Lyriqs da Lyraciss and James Jackson.
The fundraiser will take place at Mud and Water on Friday. It begins around 10 p.m., and tickets are $7.
