Matthew 25: Investing in the least pays dividends

CEDAR RAPIDS — Clint Twedt-Ball stepped away from his comfortable job as pastor of Lovely Lane United Methodist Church in 2007 to try to more directly work with those who had less than he had, he said Tuesday.

He and his younger brother Courtney Ball — also a Methodist pastor at the time — called their new neighborhood-building organization Matthew 25. It was named after oft-quoted verses in the New Testament that encourage people to invest in'the least' of the population.

In less than eight years, Matthew 25 has invested that commitment in the west-side neighborhoods hit hard in the Flood of 2008, and grown from nothing into a non-profit organization that has raised $1.51 million to date in its own $1.8-million capital fundraising campaign.

Along the way, the campaign has secured significant donations from some of the best-known philanthropic entities in Cedar Rapids.

'We were impressed with the work they did in conjunction with Four Oaks during the crux of the flood-recovery time,' said Jack Evans, president of the Hall-Perrine Foundation. 'That really helped to renovate a good portion of the west side to the west of Ellis Boulevard NW. How they renovated those houses, with the help of volunteer labor … We were very impressed.'

The Hall-Perrine Foundation has pledged $375,000 to the Matthew 25 campaign, on the condition that Matthew 25 raise twice as much from others. Which it has done.

Diamond V Mills and the Bloomhall family have donated $300,000; the AEGON Transamerica Foundation, $250,000; Len and Marlene Hadley, $180,000; the McIntyre Foundation, $100,000; and CRST and John and Dyan Smith, $90,000, said Twedt-Ball, Matthew 25's executive director.

'I can't explain that part of it,' he said of the donations. 'The best explanation I can give is that people know there's a need in Cedar Rapids for core neighborhoods to be revitalized. People see us believing in them, and they want to be part of things.'

Twedt-Ball said he his and his brother's initial focus in 2007 was in the west-side Taylor Elementary School neighborhood. But the brothers quickly looked to help in the Time Check Neighborhood that was hit hard in the June 2008 flood.

In the wake of the flood, Twedt-Ball said the first thing they did was to tap into their network of church members to ask people to bake cookies and put them in zip-lock plastic bags. They then went door-to-door listen to flood victims and see how they could help, handing out cookies along the way.

By winter, Matthew 25 had convened a neighborhood meeting to question city leaders. After that, the organization won backing from neighbors and city officials.

Twedt-Ball got the idea of fixing up flood-damaged homes a block at a time, an idea that Jim Ernst, then head of Four Oaks, agreed to join forces on. CRST's John Smith and his wife Dyan donated $1 million to what became the Block by Block program.

Twedt-Ball said the program fixed up 25 flood-damaged residential blocks and a total of 250 homes on those west-side blocks.

More recently, Matthew 25 has worked with the city of Cedar Rapids to create an urban farm, called Ellis Urban Village, on property that the city had acquired through its flood-recovery buyout program. Matthew 25 now farms 18 garden plots in an area between Ellis Boulevard NW and Fourth Street NW and F and H avenues NW in proximity to a Diamond V Mills plant,

The non-profit also has moved its headquarters into the former flood-damaged Acme Graphics building, 201 Third Ave. SW, in Kingston Village. The organization purchased it from the city for $257,000 in a competitive process and has put another $230,000 into the building in additional renovations.

Matthew 25's $1.8 million capital campaign is designed to pay off the building debt, finish its rehabilitation, build an outdoor kitchen and learning center at the Ellis Urban Village and set aside money for ongoing facility maintenance.

Twedt-Ball said the organization has slimmed down to eight employees and gets help from five VISTA volunteers and countless other volunteers. Last year, some 8,000 volunteers hours went into planting the vegetables at the urban farm and five garden plots on school grounds, he said.

Today, Matthew 25's central focus is on the revitalization of core neighborhoods, which it does in three ways: by renovating and building housing; by supporting locally grown food, the organization's urban farm and the school gardens; and by operating youth education programs.

Twedt-Ball said the verses of Chapter 25 in the Bible's Book of Matthew — verses that defined the organization's mission — talk about the importance of investing, but in 'places that are overlooked and people who are overlooked.'

'We're not seeking the best returns in the stock market,' he said. 'We're seeking to go into neighborhoods and places where traditional developers won't go. Maybe the schools are struggling and they don't get the same resources as those in better neighborhoods. How do we invest in those places?'

The Hall-Perrine Foundation's Evans said the foundation has been impressed with Matthew 25's urban farm, its tool-lending library and its focus on the arts and nutrition.

'… They are a unique organization,' Evans said. 'But they also have a lot of vision, they serve a need in the community, and we're glad to help them.'

l Comments: (319) 398-8312; rick.smith@thegazette.com