Kay Bond moved Up North to get away from it all.
As a co-founder of the Grand Rapids-based nonprofit, In The Image, Bond spent 10 years guiding the agency from start-up to running its 40,000-square-foot warehouse that today still provides free clothing and home furnishings to some 32,000 needy shoppers a year.
For vacations, Bond along with her husband Randy, served on faith-based peacemaker teams in war-ravaged areas of the world including Palestine, Chiapas, Mexico and El Salvador and the former Yugoslavia. It was no wonder that in 1998, the couple eagerly looked forward to a stress-free, early retirement in Beulah.
So far, Bond's retirement has been anything but.
With fine-tuned instincts honed through her years as a social activist, Bond was quick to sense things were less than idyllic in her little retirement community. Researching further, she was appalled by Department of Human Services' poverty statistics in Benzie County and the rise in home foreclosures in the area. Equating her work with inner city residents living in deep poverty to her experience in war zones, Bond in 2006 declared Benzie County itself a war zone as more residents applied for food assistance and more middle-class citizens, including three neighbors within a one-mile radius of her house, lost their homes to foreclosure.
"I didn't find out until after one was gone that she had kidney disease," Bond recalls. "Her husband was taking her to dialysis twice a week and eventually it cost him his job and they lost the home they were paying on since 1986."
She knew then that her retirement would be short-lived.
"In The Image had a staff of nine paid employees. Three were regular employees and six were graduates of the streets, and they all made the same amount of money," Bond said. "The board of directors was half neighborhood residents and half middle class folks."
It was that same model Bond brought with her in March 2007 when she accepted the position of executive director of Benzie Area Christian Neighbors, an outreach started by the Benzie Ministerial Association 25 years ago.
A firm believer in the idea that those in need deserve to have some input into their well-being, Bond said she was shocked when a call went out for interested parties in the five-county area to attend a Poverty Reduction Initiative meeting to determine the most pressing problems facing people in poverty.
"What startled me was that they had failed to invite people in poverty," Bond said. "Coming from my background with In The Image, I knew that people in poverty have something to say. That's why we need them for volunteers and on our board of directors. They know their needs. We don't need to tell them."
Bond said that, according to a 2007 Poverty Reduction Survey completed by 207 Benzie County residents, the largest need was for food assistance followed by medical and dental care. The majority in need are married and either own or rent their own homes. Twenty-seven percent needing assistance have had some college education.
"It's not retirees. It's not people on Medicaid. It's circumstance -- job loss, medical bills," Bond said estimating that Christian Neighbors helps an average of 325 people a month battle high food and gasoline expenses, utility shut-offs and housing crises from their small, cottage-style facility at 2839 Benzie Hwy.
The cottage is in need of repairs and no longer provides adequate space for the food pantry, offices and clothing and furniture giveaway areas. Bond's challenge is to expand the agency's presence in the community to meet the growing need.
In January 2007, Benzie Area Christian Neighbors broke from the Benzie Ministerial Association and seated a separate board of directors made up of diverse people from within the community. Meanwhile, an advisory board consisting of representatives from area churches was established to serve as a sounding board for advice and input on fundraising and volunteer projects. Currently Benzie Area Christian Neighbors has seated one neighbor in need on its board and they are seeking more applicants.
Operating on a thin budget, Bond's vision is to tackle her war on the local economic issues and not spend a lot of money.
Currently the facility is open only for a few hours three days a week. Bond already is using the help of Beverly Toomey and Susan Crawford to train more volunteer coordinators so the agency can be staffed five days a week.
She also is in the process of remodeling an existing 1,000-square-foot pole barn on the property that will house the clothing and furniture and allow the little cottage the space to expand into a full-fledged food pantry.
With the help of volunteer leader Barb Heiman, she plans for the expansion to allow enough classroom space to provide a GED program in Benzie County that will save residents wishing to get their diplomas the back-and-forth travel to Grand Traverse or Manistee counties.
And Bond has declared a moratorium on the word "client," preferring instead the words "neighbors in need" in reference to those seeking assistance.
"It's out of our vocabulary," Bond said. "I went (into the inner city of Grand Rapids) with the attitude that I was so rich and so well educated and so religious. I had so much to give.
"The first month I had two homeless people give me money. My vision here is that we're all equal at the table."
Her dream is for residents to work together and for the Benzie area to be a livable place for everyone -- a real neighborhood.
Benzie Area Christian Neighbors is located at 2839 Benzie Highway. For more information, call 882-9544.
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