Baxter Turns 40!

Planting Seeds & Singing Songs

This year at Baxter Community Center, we celebrate our 40th Anniversary, acknowledging our strong roots, our growth over the past four decades, and the hopeful future we anticipate.

Planted in 1969, during the late days of the Civil Rights movement, Baxter has endured times of rushing wind, scorching heat, and torrential rain. And yet, despite challenging times, this humble seedling has sprouted and flourished. Over the course of four decades, Baxter has grown into a strong, insistent source of racial reconciliation and social change, providing refuge and hope in a neighborhood that still faces social injustice and inequity. This year, we celebrate the joy of Planting Seeds and Singing Songs as we continue pursuing a community of love, wholeness, and opportunity in the Baxter neighborhood. At our 6th annual Opening Doors Celebration this fall, we will together celebrate both the last 12 months in the life of Baxter and this exciting milestone.

Planting Seeds and Singing Songs 40th Anniversary Initiative

As part of our celebration, we are asking our friends, advocates, and supporters to contribute to our Planting Seeds and Singing Songs 40th Anniversary Initiative. This initiative will raise a total of $400,000 to support the Proctor Endowment, our new Rooftop Green House Project, and an Emergent Needs Fund.

Proctor Endowment ($100,000):

This endowment acknowledges the influence of Gene Proctor, who served as Baxter’s executive director for 18 years. The Initiative will grow the endowment, enabling Baxter to fund critical repairs and maintenance.

Rooftop Green House Project ($200,000):

This project reflects our desire to continually refine our services as we better understand clients’ needs. Our expanded understanding of health, the environment, and good stewardship of space have compelled us to create a greenhouse, and through this project, we strive for three key outcomes: improved health and nutrition, education, and responsible environmental stewardship.

Emergent Needs Fund ($100,000):

This fund will ensure our ability to meet the critical needs of clients and respond to changing trends within the core city, specifically related to children’s health, education, and well-being as well as adult wellness, food, clothing, and job and life skills.

Our History

In the late 1960s, a time of profound civil strife, ever-widening urban decay and pervasive racial inequality, several members of Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church and the surrounding community recognized a shared desire to tangibly respond to the social injustice and unmet needs in their neighborhood.

Baxter began as Eastern Avenue Community Center, an infant organization housed in the small office space located above Bierling Bakery on Eastern Avenue. Despite a hole in the roof and no equipment or furniture save a three-legged ping pong table, the Center attracted neighborhood children to its literacy programs, math tutoring, and safe, welcoming environment. The initial group of children quickly outgrew the small space.

Providentially, the local Baxter Christian School had just recently relocated, leaving its building unoccupied. Leaders from the fledgling Community Center on Eastern met with the Grand Rapids Christian School Board and arranged to rent the building at a rate of one dollar a month for the first year. In the summer of 1969, Baxter Community Center was officially established in its current location in the heart of the Baxter neighborhood, a site with ample space for current operations and a great deal of room to grow.

Four decades later, this once tiny seedling has sprouted and flourished. With deep roots and branches far extended, Baxter continues to act as “A Christian Response to Human Needs” within the ever-changing, ever-evolving realities of the surrounding community.

A Timeline

1969

Baxter Community Center is officially established upon the relocation of Eastern Avenue Community Center into the Baxter Christian School building.

1969-1976

Herschell Turner serves as Executive Director.

1976-1978

Tumultuous years for Baxter. With the building in disrepair and executive directors cycling in and out without significant success, some fear Baxter may close.

1978-1996

Gene Proctor serves as Executive Director.

1996-Present

Melanie Beelen serves as Executive Director.