The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Hallelujah!
Local church given very merry Christmas
By Dan DuChene, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 4, 2007
Ypsilanti's First United Methodist Church has been blessed with a $235,000 donation from a very anonymous donor.
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The donation was announced to the members of the church on Dec. 11. The money had been transferred to the church earlier the previous week.
"It's a pretty good Christmas gift," said Reverend Melanie Lee Carey, the church's senior pastor. She said the donation is the largest single donation in the churches 181-year history. However, the donation did come with some strings attached.
The first and seemingly most important stipulation was the donor(s) had to remain anonymous. Carey said she doesn't even know who donated the money.
"My lips are sealed," Peter Fletcher said.
Fletcher, CEO of the Credit Bureau of Ypsilanti and member of the church, was the contact between the church and the donor(s). He is also the only living soul who knows the donor(s) identity.
"I am supposed to be so mysterious about it," Fletcher said.
Fletcher said he had been contacted in November about the donation. He said the donor(s) were inspired by Carey's actions as the church's pastor. Namely, a program she ran this summer called the Kingdom Assignment.
Carey said she had asked her 450-member congregation for 50 volunteers in June. She said the people did not know what they were volunteering for. Each volunteer was given $100.
The money was to be somehow invested and donated to an outside charity or cause. Carey said more than $25,000 was raised and donated by September. The original $5,000, Carey said, was given to her by an anonymous donor with specific directions to operate the program.
"You would not believe the amazing things people did," Carey said. "You name it, we did it."
Carey said her son had turned his $100 donation into $1,600 and donated the money to Nothing But Nets, an organization established by the United Nations Foundation to provide mosquito netting for Africans to fight the spread of malaria.
The Kingdom Assignment, Carey said, is a movement across the country, in several different religions. The origin of the movement is a 2001 book "The Kingdom Assignment," by Denny and Leesa Bellesi. Carey said the authors had been inspired by the movie "Pay it Forward."
"I don't know how many people have done this," Carey said of the Kingdom Assignment.
The second stipulation attached to the recent donation was it was to be named the Reverend Melanie Lee Carey Legacy Fund, and she was to use it for church purposes as saw fit.
"I'm feeling very humbled," Carey said. "It's a lot of responsibility."
Carey said she put the money in the church's endowment as a building fund.
"This is going to put us up to a half million dollars," Carey said of the endowment.
In the endowment, the church will be able to spend interest made from investing the money. The interest made on the new fund will be put toward updating and maintaining the church's 163-year-old building on the corner of Washington Street and Washtenaw Avenue.
"I believe it will be a very, very appropriate use," Fletcher said. "[The building] is a genuine historic treasure."
Carey said the building is –currently used by several community organizations, including a 120-member Alcoholics Anonymous group, the Ann Arbor Boys' Choir and two English classes for Spanish-speaking citizens.
"Our building really is a community resource," Carey said.
Fletcher said Carey has been the reverend in Ypsilanti for more than six years, about the average amount of time a Methodist pastor.
"We're getting a little nervous," Fletcher said. "Melanie is such a catalyst of action."
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