See photos from the Calvin Around Town event at the

Inner City Christian Federation

on Thursday, March 27, 2008
6:30–9 p.m.

Photo Gallery (81 photos)

Evening at the ICCF draws 250 alumni to the heart of the city

An early spring snow storm didn’t stop 250 Calvin alumni from attending the sold out March 27 Calvin Around Town event at the Inner City Christian Federation.

The event provided an opportunity for Calvin alumni and other community members to learn more about the dazzling 100-year-old building recently purchased and renovated by the non-profit affordable housing developer and housing service ministry.

“My husband and I have been wanting to come here and see the new building,” said Betty Grit ’64. “Calvin Around Town got to us to actually come and visit a place in the city we normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to go to.”

As much as the evening served to bring the Calvin community to see the new ICCF facility, it was also designed to acquaint participants with the mission of the organization. ICCF Advancement Associate and Calvin alumna AnnaMae Bush ’69 said the event, like the organization itself, was designed to be educational.

“Our classes are our priority. So as we have 250 Calvin people here now, we also have three classes going on. With that in mind, we wanted to make this an educational evening instead of just a tour,” she said.

Presentations acquaint guests with ICCF history, core values, future, new building

Four very different presentations gave Calvin Around Town guests a look at everything from the ICCF’s three core values to the materials used to restore its new building and its plans to develop an entire block for mixed residential and business use.

ICCF president and chief executive officer Jonathan Bradford ’71 gave the evening’s main presentation in a packed assembly hall once used to host vaudeville acts and other entertainment for the building’s original occupants: orphans. Given the history of the building, Bradford said the facility was a perfect fit for ICCF with its mission to provide resources to under-served families seeking immediate shelter, stable rental situations or home ownership. Just as important as the building’s history is the beautiful way in which it was constructed and later restored. Beauty, along with respect and opportunity, is integral to what ICCF does.

“Our grandparents built houses to shape a public realm that was beautiful and respectful. But for people who have to choose between a place that’s sort of warm, or food to eat or transportation to work, beauty is rarely an option. Still, when we as an organization pay attention to beauty, we communicate hope and respect,” said Bradford.

The three other sessions hosted by ICCF personnel dwelt on topics and projects never far from the conversation about the ICCF’s core values.

Kristen Moore ’00 gave a presentation on the organization’s plans to expand its projects beyond the residential to mixed-use community areas that contain residential, commercial and public space. David de Velder gave a presentation on what it took to restore a century-old building with L.E.E.D. certification in mind. Daryl Vogel, ICCF’s Vice President of Advancement, spoke on the history of the building the organization rescued from demolition and took great pains to restore to its original magnificence. The attention to detail in the restoration, he said, was just another part of ICCF laboring to live up to something D.A. Blodgett said over 100 years ago.

“ ‘As we treat the foundlings, so goes the future of our community,’ D.A. Blodgett said. 100 years later, we at ICCF have the opportunity to carry that same mantle in a slightly different way,” Vogel said.

The Calvin Around Town event was an educational opportunity for all 250 participants, but perhaps no more so than for the Calvin students in attendance as part of professor Henk Aay’s Urban Geography class.

“We take a field trip in our class every Thursday. This is the ideal place for my students to see what’s going on in the city,” Aay said.

Sociology professor Mark Mulder echoed these thoughts in his opening remarks during Jonathan Bradford’s presentation.

“For the students we brought here today, it was a crucial moment. They really caught the vision for the city,” he said.

Guests view Kurelek art collection on loan from Calvin alumna

The event went by quickly and provided just enough time for guests to take a look at the special art collection on loan from Howard and Roberta ’72 Ahmanson. The collection displays paintings by William Kurelek, a Canadian artist whose work struggles to find glimpses of God’s presence and grace in seemingly hopeless places and situations.

“One could not imagine a more synergistic pairing between a Christian organization devoted to reconstruct beauty as well as justice in blighted urban neighborhoods and a Christian artist with a powerful vision of God’s presence and grace among those whom the world has disenfranchised and denied,” said professor and ICCF board member Simona Goi in a pamphlet on the exhibition.

The Kurelek art show will be open to the public at the ICCF until May. Gallery hours are Monday–Friday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 12–4 p.m.

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