#PeopleofNEI: Miles, creating change with citywide bake sales

By Stephen J. Bailey

Northeast Indiana is evolving. These are the people and places shaping its future. #PeopleofNEI #PlacesofNEI

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Miles, age 11, has lived in Fort Wayne for most of his life. He is the oldest of 5 kids and his enthusiasm for life is infectious. He loves soccer and basketball, but really enjoys food the most. When he found out that people around him were suffering, he combined his love for food with activism in his own neighborhood. His actions have created citywide bake sales throughout the month of July to help with fundraising. “I started by just having a tiny, little bake sale down the street with my brothers. I think we raised around $50. I have been looking for a way to help with the Black Lives Matter movement. I thought to myself that the best thing to do would be to have a bake sale, but it’s not really about us. It’s about the black community. I go to a public school and have black friends. I just feel like what is happening to black people is unjust and it’s just not okay. I wanted to give something towards it and help fix it. My neighbor, Kristin Giant, heard about what I was doing and started the Family & Friends Fund for Southeast Fort Wayne. The money goes to southeast Fort Wayne and to black leaders and areas that were redlined. It’s going to help black leaders and their ideas and their plans. It’s pretty cool. To see all of this happening and all of this support for Black Lives Matter and being able to help it is just really great. There’s so many friendly people here and people that I am close to, and I love my family so much. I have lived in this neighborhood almost my whole life and the people here believe in things that I believe in like changing racism, especially the people that are here today helping me at the bake sale. I just love food so much. When I walk into a room and there’s a lot of food out, I am always so happy. That’s why I chose the bake sale idea. I really just want people to know that if you feel that you can make a change in your neighborhood or city, you can definitely do it. It’s not just racism that people can help fix but people can push towards doing what is right. Even if it’s just an idea like a bake sale because who knows? It can end up becoming a city wide system of bake sales and that is really cool to me.” #PeopleofNEI
A post shared by Input Fort Wayne (@inputfortwayne) on Jul 13, 2020 at 9:12pm PDT

#PeopleofNEI: Miles, creating change with citywide bake sales

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