Cedar Rapids nonprofit’s $100,000 award buys van to improve youth transportation access

CEDAR RAPIDS — Four girls who played league basketball couldn’t get a ride home one day and called Ann Legree, a Kingdom Community Center nonprofit board member, for help.

Their parents could drop them off but not pick them up from league activities as they worked until approximately 1 a.m. By the time the middle school girls finally asked Legree for a ride home at 11 p.m., they had made the long trek from basketball courts off Blairs Ferry Road NE in Marion to First Avenue and Sixth Street SW by foot. They thought they could get home before their parents returned.

“That was just their solution in their mind,” Legree said. “’These are the connections and resources I have. I have feet and I know nobody, so I can get home using my feet.’ … That was a scary thing for me knowing that they’re 11 and 12 years old thinking they can just walk completely across town after dark in basketball season. It was winter.”

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Now, thanks to a $100,000 grant funded by local businesses, the Cedar Rapids-based nonprofit purchased an extended passenger van in August to address these transportation needs for local youth.

Kingdom Community Center earlier this year won the donation as part of the Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids’ annual Grand Impact luncheon. It was held April 1 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Cedar Rapids Convention Complex.

The nonprofit was founded in 2019 to provide mentoring and support services to at-risk youth in Cedar Rapids’ Wellington Heights and Mound View neighborhoods.

The center was one of three nonprofit finalists to an audience of 50 area businesses, each of which pledged $2,000 toward the $100,000 award fund and voted for the winner.

The organization’s founder, board President Bart Woods, said the funds cover the purchase of a 15-passenger van, insurance for a number of years and a graphic wrap that will display the nonprofit’s name on the van as an effort to spread the word about the organization.

Located at 700 Center Point Rd. NE, the center looks to provide a safe space for youth to spend time, learn skills, receive mentorship and build relationships with trusted adults and their peers. Woods said youth who visit the center have seen higher graduation rates than the average for Mound View and Wellington Heights.

Legree said these youth don’t always have reliable adults providing regular transportation for them.

“Transportation is a major issue for middle schoolers, for high schoolers and for families, frankly,” posing a major hurdle to accessing work, doctors’ offices, school and other key services, Woods said.

Overall, Executive Director David Pino said the center sees more than 160 youth use the building each year.

Pino said the van will mainly serve the center’s Friday night youth group, which is mostly made up of middle school students. The students typically have to leave the center on the 6 p.m. Cedar Rapids Transit bus to be taken to the Ground Transportation Center, where they catch another bus home before buses stop running.

The grant makes it possible for the nonprofit’s volunteers to take the kids on larger trips in one van, Woods said. They may go fishing, boating or swimming at municipal pools or visit the beach and other destinations.

Those driving the van do not need to obtain commercial driver’s licenses, Woods said, but staff will carefully select who is authorized to drive. Pino is the only paid staff member, Woods said, but the board would like to eventually hire a part-time mechanic and a part-time volunteer coordinator.

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The center offers a variety of other activities like an auto mechanics space where youth can learn to fix cars and save money by working on their own car repairs, Woods said.

Also among the center’s offerings has been a partnership with Iowa State University Extension, which led a course teaching students about babysitting, including the business of babysitting, a review of safety information and how to market their services. Pino said more students could potentially access such opportunities with the expanded transportation.

“They know if they need food, they can come here and get food,” Legree said. “They can come here and cool down if they're overheating. And in a lot of the stories that I've heard from them, they don't have someone that they can always count on to be there for them and to provide what they need when they need it.”

Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com