After consulting with ADNet’s former executive director Paul Leichty and receiving an accessibility grant from Indiana Michigan Conference, Grand Marais Mennonite Church (Michigan) completed a new fellowship hall in 2011 that is barrier free. Pastor Steve Post writes about the vision that motivated their building renovation:
Grand Marais Mennonite Church fellowship hall
"From the very beginning of the project, the fellowship hall was designed to be accessible to all who wish to come and worship with the congregation. We wanted it to be a place where disabilities will not hinder the ability to be a part of a body of believers.
"Our renovations enabled us to be classified as a community shelter in case of a community-wide emergency. We have a generator that will supply all of the needed electricity for our building, so that heat and food can be provided during an emergency. The new fellowship hall has a kitchen and eating area as well as a place for people to sleep should the emergency last more than a day.
"The basement is considered to be a safe room with reinforced walls and ceiling. It houses supplies from the Medical Reserve Corps that can be used by any community in the Upper Peninsula emergency response network. Should there be an emergency anywhere in the Upper Peninsula, these medical supplies will be sent where they are needed.
"God has blessed our efforts on behalf of the Grand Marais community and the Upper Peninsula in many ways. We are a very small church averaging twenty to twenty-five people during the winter and thirty to forty people during the summer. The men of the church built the building without anyone getting hurt. We did not have to borrow any money from the bank. We started this project as a debt-free church and we remain debt free to this day. To God be the glory!”
