Spring Lake Rotary Scribes Report: July 28, 2023
Gracious Grounds
Our Friday meeting started with some club business, which consisted of votes among the membership in attendance to nominate a new Secretary and two new Directors at Large to the board. Candidates for the positions were: Secretary - Brian Ertl and Dan Heimler, and Director – Brian Ertl, Dan Heimler and Raquel Raguse. Paper ballots were subsequently tallied and it was determined that Brian would be the Club’s new Secretary, with Dan and Raquel the new Directors, all for three-year terms. Congratulations to the new board members and thanks to them for volunteering to be part of our club’s leadership. A separate vote was then held by membership to reconfirm Lisa Ashcraft as Club Treasurer, which passed unanimously. Thanks to Lisa for her many years of service to our club, and helping to keep us in the black!
After the voting concluded, we heard from our speaker, Liz Nienhuis of Gracious Grounds. Liz took over as the new Executive Director in the fall of 2022, after moving to west Michigan from Royal Oak. Liz is in charge of strategic direction, programming, fundraising and marketing for the organization. Gracious Grounds was established 10 years ago, with the mandate to support successful, independent living for adults with intellectual disabilities. They currently have three housing locations, all in Grand Haven, which allow living space for 50 residents, and 6 resident assistants. Goals of the non-profit organization are to offer opportunities for residents to establish and maintain independence, without judgement, to be placed into jobs with local supportive employers, and to help those individuals create lasting friendships along the way. All living centers are located in the east side of Grand Haven, and have easy access to Harbor Transit, which traverses the Tri-Cities area and can deliver them to and from their various work locations.
Jeff Troupe, Board President of Gracious Grounds, works as a special education teacher in the Grand Haven School District. Too often, Jeff sees his students graduate from high school, only to be left adrift without the support of their fellow students and teachers to guide their growth. Gracious Grounds has given those young adults a place from which they can take the next step, often using their connections at the non-profit to move straight from high school into the workforce with employers such as Leppinks in Ferrysburg, Orchard Markets in Spring Lake and Fruitport, and Love Inc., Culvers and Kenzie’s Be Café in Grand Haven, among others. As a result of these opportunities and the unique setting that sponsors them, there is a lengthy wait list to be able to live at one of the Gracious Grounds properties.
Liz highlighted some exciting news as well. They just completed a website refresh, which looks great, so please be sure to check that out when you get a chance. Even bigger news is that they recently applied for funding with Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), and found out that they are one of 8 organizations in their category, selected in their ranking system. This means that they will be submitting the full application this September, and if accepted and funded by the state, would total approximately $15 million investment to be used towards sustainable housing for their residents. The goal for those funds is to build a 77-unit, 1-bedroom apartment building, complete with kitchen, clubhouse, exercise room and gathering spaces with community garden. If you are interested in keeping up to date on any developments with this project, or anything else Gracious Grounds related, please sign up their newsletter on their brand new website at
www.graciousgrounds.org. As always, they are accepting daily, weekly and monthly volunteers at any of their three living communities.
50/50 Winner: Maggie McKeithan
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