The squeaks of sneakers echoed across the basketball court at Team Sportsplex in Baton Rouge on a recent Saturday as players took to the floor for “Hoops For A Cause,” a three-on-three charity basketball tournament.
Basketball fans filtered in, paid the $10 admission fee and grabbed their Sour Punch candy from the concession stand before finding seats near the court. Teams came from all over the city to compete, but the purpose of the event was bigger than a win on the court.
Baton Rouge residents Kirklan Parms, 21, Justin Collins, 22, and Erick Hitchens, 20, planned the tournament to unite the community, raise awareness about social issues, and donate to a charitable cause. The tournament was one of several community initiatives hosted by Built from Stone, an organization they founded. The men say they came together at a time when each was looking for a higher purpose.
“We were each other’s help,” said Parms, who plans to attend h State University.
A troupe dressed in black uniforms cheered on the players, while children joined in with their hands in the air and smiles on their faces. The group, Baton Rouge Hotties, made up of women ages 18 to 24, was created by Kaitlyn Gleason to bring the women together to dance and have a positive impact on the community.
Two teams of basketball players compete in the recent “Hoops For A Cause” three-on-three charity tournament.
“People are not just doing the worst in Baton Rouge,” Gleason said. “There are good people like myself and the person that put this event together.”
Organizers said they hoped to raise awareness as much as money. Proceeds from “Hoops For A Cause” were donated toward the legal defense of Karmelo Anthony, the African American teenager sentenced to 35 years in prison for stabbing a white teenager to death during an altercation at a school track meet in Texas. Anthony’s legal team has claimed the stabbing was in self-defense and that the stiff sentence was motivated by race. The family of the victim, Austin Metcalf, has denied those claims.
Each team in the Hoops tournament was named after an individual whom organizers say suffered from systemic injustice. But the event was more than a series of basketball games. Young men who needed professional attire for a job interview or new job also had access to free clothing through Threads to Thrive, a service project founded by Southern University student Elise Doomes. Individuals were also able to register to vote and get help with college applications and scholarships.
“No matter if you came for the basketball, the cheering, the food or the clothes, you came for a reason and that's because of what's going on in the world right now,” said Corey Scott, a construction management student at LSU.
Sitting on the bleachers watching the game, Parms’ mother, Danielle Johnson, recalled a time when her son was in elementary school and how everyone wanted to be in his presence. He was born with a birthmark on his face, and she told him he was special.
‘I have more to give’
“To see him as a grown man and the things that he's involved with now, I'm just so proud,” she said. “They could have been in jail. But for them to overcome it and come out of that situation and be like, 'I'm better than that. I'm more than that. I have more to give.’ I love it,” said Johnson.
Parms grew up in Scotland Square projects in Scotlandville, where his family could barely afford to pay rent. Even then, he was taught to look beyond his circumstances and believe he could accomplish what he set out to do.
The foundation of Built from Stone began long before the organization had a name.
Sitting side-by-side beneath the stairway at the LSU Student Union, the three founders laughed, looked at one another and occasionally paused to let someone else finish a memory before explaining how it all began.
Parms and Collins met through mutual friends while they were in high school, but one conversation became a defining moment in their friendship.
Collins recalled a time of uncertainty in his life, when he returned from Arkansas State University, where he had played Division I football. After suffering a shoulder injury, he transferred to LSU.
Parms encouraged Collins to trust what God had in store for him and keep his head up. Collins said the conversation stayed with him.
In the fall of 2025, another friendship began. Collins met Erick Hitchens while the two worked together at Zara clothing store in Baton Rouge. What started with Collins complimenting Hitchens' army green G-Shock watch quickly turned into hours the men spent joking and exchanging ideas in Collins’ living room. Those conversations would eventually become the foundation of Built from Stone. They shared a common goal — creating opportunities for young people and encouraging them to dream beyond the expectations placed on them.
“You don’t meet a lot of people with the same mindset,” said Parms.
From there, their first project was to give back to St. Vincent de Paul, a nonprofit organization that provides food services and shelter in Baton Rouge. They passed out 40 boxes of pizza in October 2025.
Growing up in the Glen Oaks neighborhood in Baton Rouge, Hitchens said his experiences inspired him to pursue a career in law and eventually create a space to speak up about issues in society; he is now majoring in political science at LSU.
“I'm always inserting myself in rooms that may not look like I have a seat … but I'm gonna make my own seat,” he said.
Collins' mission was shaped by his own journey through football. After injuries changed the direction of his athletic ambitions, he said he wants young people to know success isn't limited to sports.
“Football was something that originally put eyes on me. Now, I use it to show young people that's not the only route they have,” Collins said.
Inspired by the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., Parms hopes to one day become mayor of Baton Rouge. He believes leadership begins with serving others. Growing up in Scotland Square fueled his passion for activism and community outreach, values he said remain at the core of Built from Stone.
“I feel like stone is the strongest thing you can come across … from a solid core, unity, just the whole concept of being together,” Parms said.
Meeks is a journalism student at Southern University. This story was reported and written with the support of the nonprofit h Collegiate News Collaborative, an LSU-led coalition of eight universities funded by the Henry Luce and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur foundations.