Local market event raises funds for the family of Kaylon Woods
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- A Michiana community turned a local maker's market into a lifeline for a grieving family.
Dozens of people came out to a special Maker's Collective market event in South Bend today, to check out all the vendors, all while a very special fundraising effort was taking place. When beloved community member and yoga instructor Kaylon Woods was killed in late April, he left behind a grieving extended family, and two children.
Over 50 vendors setup shop at the Maker's Collective market for a special fundraiser for Kaylon Wood's surviving family members. Event planners Eric Miller and Kailey Day were interviewed about what drove them to put Kaylon's family members first while the community comes out to support not just local business, but local healing as well.
"Eric has been really close with Kay, and after everything happened, we knew that we were already planning our event, and I was like, there's already going to be, you know, a community that's going to be coming here. Our last event drew over 300 people, so we were like, if we can, you know, help in any way with his family, this is the perfect spot to do it, because everybody's coming here with their family shopping already. So, we just wanted to get it out there and help however we can," said Kailey Day
And Eric Miller added "He's a really close friend of mine. I've known him longer than my son's been alive, and that's over a decade. So, when I say that, the community around here, you can tell a lot of people wanting to help out. It's not just, hey, we want to help out because it's a tragedy, they're wanting to help out because he was a solid human being in the community. He gave back, he loved everyone that he wanted to help, and like, how could you not love somebody like that and want to help out with him while he's either here or not here."
Eric will also be hosting a men's mental health awareness and donation drive at Definition Gym on June 20th, which will have free admission for Father's Day, plus vendors, therapists, and other kinds of help, with the goal of supporting men's mental health and preventing tragedies like the one that happened to Kaylon.