A Louisiana nonprofit is helping kids build bikes and create better futures. When Dustin LaFont was paying his way through college at Louisiana State University, he knew the only way he could afford to get around was by bicycle. And if his bike broke down, he would need to know how to fix it, so he taught himself. Now he’s using those skills to empower kids in Baton Rouge to improve their lives.
After graduate school, LaFont settled in Baton Rouge and got a job teaching middle school history and he also started helping kids in his neighborhood fix their bicycles in the front yard of his house. Pretty soon, the Front Yard Bike Shop was created and later LaFont converted it into an official nonprofit. After two years, he quit his teaching job and devoted himself full-time to Front Yard Bikes.
Today, Front Yard Bikes has grown into a powerful tool to help kids and young adults in Baton Rouge stay out of trouble, learn new skills and improve their prospects. LaFont gets lots of praise from the community for “keeping the kids busy and out of the streets,” but he doesn’t see it that way. He thinks kids are every community’s greatest resource. “My constant fight is trying to get people to see who our kids really are,” he says. “And to see that they have something to offer right now.”
Source: CNN