Episode 75 K.C. Kilpatrick Baird - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

K.C. Kilpatrick Baird, Founder and Executive Director of Geaux 4 Kids and Project Geaux Bags, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:

 

0:32 1. KC, you are a true hero in this community and I find your story so inspiring and so moving.

 

Your nonprofit, Geaux 4 Kids, Inc, the one that you started, recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary. Let’s explain the work that you do and the genesis of how it got started. You once said,

 

“The reality is I always wanted to be a mama…One of my greatest fears was I wasn’t going to be able to have my own biological children and that fear came true. With that said, the dream of having children then expanded. It expanded to foster care.”

 

Tell me about Hallie-Stella and Jayden and how you first conceived of Geaux 4 Kids and Project Geaux Bags.

 

11:17 2. In 2020, Geaux 4 Kids, Inc., headquartered in Caddo Parish, officially went statewide, distributing Geaux Bags to all 64 parishes.

 

You once said the following in describing the thought behind Geaux Bags, “They (the children) have already been through the worst that life has to offer, honestly. While adults try to figure it out, we can at least give them those items, that dignity, that hope.”

 

Tell me about some of the contents of the bags.

 

16:07 3. Where are the contents for your bags housed, how are the bags put together and how are they distributed?

 

19:11 4. I know a lot of people who have interest in starting a nonprofit. Talk a little about biggest challenges to starting a nonprofit and any other words of wisdom you would like to share for people who are thinking about embarking on that path.

 

34:02 5. As you look around our community, what are some of the things that concern you the most?

 

37:06 6. What gives you hope that we’re headed in the right direction?