BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (WAFB) – Community leaders and organizations gathered to celebrate funds raised for the opening of the Inspiration Center in north Baton Rouge.
The Law Enforcement Criminal Justice Foundation (LECJF) has been working with other organizations and community members for years to make this facility a reality. Construction will begin next week at Howell Community Park in Baton Rouge. The family and youth center will feature sports fields and courts, game rooms, recording studios, computer labs, reading areas, a cafeteria, etc.
A special dinner was held Tuesday evening to celebrate the $9 million raised over the past two years to benefit this new facility.
Cathy Toliver is the grandmother of Devin Page Jr., who was just three years old when he was shot in April 2022 while sleeping next to his little sister. Investigators say the Nextdoor to Devin house was the intended target. Since then, Toliver says, she has promised to never let his name or legacy die. She has done much to move this facility forward.
“When you look around the community and see kids sitting around the neighborhood, sitting on the porch, pacing, you know you’re going to have trouble. Kids need something to do,” Toliver says. “When people are oppressed, they get depressed and feel like there’s no hope. So they think, ‘I’m just going to go and do what I do.’ The Inspiration Center is going to be so great for everyone.”
In addition to Toliver, Paul Rice and Angela Engler have also played a large role in promoting this facility and other measures to ensure community safety. Rice and Engler are the parents of Allie Rice, a former LSU student who was brutally murdered in September 2022. Her father Paul says this inspiration center was made possible by the combined efforts of “very inspired and motivated people.”
“I’m convinced that this gives some kids a sense of purpose, keeps them out of trouble and really helps them get on the right path,” says Paul Rice.
The Inspiration Center is run by the Boys and Girls Club. Inspiration Center President Lamar Davis says the children’s success depends greatly on the investment the community is willing to make in them.
“I hate that there are incidents like this that cause us to actually make these investments, but we are committed to making sure that we invest in our communities, we will keep our communities and citizens safe and we will do whatever it takes to make that happen,” Davis says.
Davis says the high school room will be dedicated to Allie Rice and another room to Devin Page Jr. The rooms will preserve the legacies of both while reminding people of the precious young lives that were senselessly and violently ended.
“We are all affected by this (violence) in one way or another, including the children who will be participating here. So if she can be a rallying point, if she can be someone who motivates these children or inspires them in any way, then we are certainly happy to have her name put to it,” says Paul Rice.
The Rice and Page families hope the Inspiration Center can keep people away from crime and provide positive employment for children.
LECJF Chairman Clay Young says construction will begin sometime next week.
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