South Bend market becomes fundraiser for slain yoga instructor's family

A planned South Bend market turned into a fundraiser for Kaylon Woods’ family after the yoga instructor was killed in late April. Dozens of people came to the Maker’s Collective event, and more than 50 vendors set up shop, redirecting the day’s activity toward Woods’ surviving family members, including his two children.

Woods was 38. ABC57 and the South Bend Tribune identified him as a South Bend yoga instructor who taught at Soul Fire Yoga, DRIP and the Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Center. His obituary said he was born on Sept. 6, 1987, in Charleston, South Carolina, and his uncle, LaShon Smith, spoke publicly about the loss as friends and family continued to grieve him.

The support effort was rooted in a violent scene in Elkhart, where Woods died on Monday, April 27, 2026. ABC57 reported that the shooting was part of a double-shooting case and that Woods was found at The Highlands Apartments shortly after 1:54 p.m. Authorities later identified the suspect as 41-year-old Adonis Latroy Joseph of Elkhart, a former South Bend police officer. Woods’ autopsy listed his cause of death as a gunshot and the manner of death as homicide.

Organizers Eric Miller and Kailey Day said the market had already been planned, which made it a natural place to mobilize support quickly. Day said the market typically draws a large crowd, and Miller said people were showing up not only because tragedy had struck, but because Woods was deeply loved and had given back to the community. That sense of usefully directed grief carried the fundraiser beyond a memorial and into a practical outpouring for the people Woods left behind.

The response is not stopping at one market. Miller will also host a men’s mental health awareness and donation drive at Definition Gym on June 20, with free admission for Father’s Day, vendors and therapists at the Mishawaka gym in the Town & Country shopping plaza. The gym says it is open 24 hours, giving the effort a fixed home in the same local wellness network that Woods helped shape.

By the time the stalls came down, the market had done more than raise money. It showed how a South Bend yoga community can turn a familiar gathering into immediate material support, keeping Woods’ name tied to care for his children and his family.