It’s no secret that over roughly the past ten years, the City of Grand Haven has been transformed from a conservative community that values faith, family, and freedom, to a liberal community that values self-indulgence, fairness, and safety. What is not well understood is the driving factors behind the transformation.
Grand Haven is wealthier than most communities and we can be proud that an entrepreneurial portion of our residents has done well in business chasing the American Dream. In an effort to give back, these same people have donated large amounts of money to charities in hopes of improving the lives of all Americans. The Grand Haven Community Foundation (GHCF) is a primary beneficiary of these donations and a lot of the money has had a positive impact on the community. Some examples include the Lynne Sherwood Waterfront Stadium, food programs for needy people, summer concerts, preservation of natural areas and trail development, education scholarships, and the catwalk restoration.
While much money has been spent on positive initiatives, in recent years a lot of the money has been used to undermine capitalism and to transform society. In 2019, the GHCF ceased referring to themselves as a non-profit, and began using the term “for impact” as a more descriptive moniker. In 2019 the GHCF made a commitment to making diversity and inclusion a priority in grant making and even added a diversity and inclusion page to their website. Although the GHCF does not bear sole responsibility for the transformation, through the funding of businesses, government entities, non-profit organizations and programs the GHCF has determined worthy of receiving funds, they have played a significant role in the transformation that has occurred.
When researching the transformation of Grand Haven, the old saying “follow the money” is very telling. The money trail keeps leading to the same places. Money collected through state and federal taxes is being sent to school districts and county governments in the form of grants, frequently with hidden American Marxist agendas. Some of the money is then passed on to non-profit organizations, city governments, and other businesses that have become part of the stakeholder team. In addition to this funding path, the GHCF is also providing funding to many of the exact same stakeholders in the form of grants and donations.
Before continuing, let’s take a minute to define American Marxism. This snippet from the Heritage Foundation will suffice:
In 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved, many Americans and others around the globe justifiably believed that communism had been defeated. However, American Marxists, making use of the complacency that victory often produces, have gained more influence than ever before. Cloaking their goals under the pretense of social justice, they now seek to dismantle the foundations of the American republic by rewriting history; reintroducing racism; creating privileged classes; and determining what can be said in public discourse, the military, and houses of worship. Unless Marxist thought is defeated again, today’s cultural Marxists will achieve what the Soviet Union never could: the subjugation of the United States to a totalitarian, soul-destroying ideology.
The insidious tool of American Marxists is called Critical Theory and theory’s devotees would like nothing more than to relieve you of so-called capitalist oppression by obliterating all forms of personal property.
The Grand Haven Community Foundation has a blog that lists ways they have donated to the community since 2016. In 2022, although they continued to provide an overview of where their money was flowing, fewer details were provided. Since 2017, the GHCF has given roughly $1,000,000 to programs and organizations that have divided our community by spreading the ideas of American Marxism.
Among the beneficiaries are St. John’s Episcopal Church whose pastor, Jared Cramer, filed a lawsuit against the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners regarding giving the prayer before board meetings. He is a progressive activist and was a major driving force behind Grand Haven’s Pride Event. Additionally, Cramer is Co-Chair of the group Tri-Cities Puentes Initiative which was created in 2021 and has received $140,000 from the Grand Haven Community Foundation. Not coincidentally, Cramer’s attorney in the suit mentioned above, Sarah Howard, was also the attorney for Adeline Hambley in her lawsuit against the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners, personal attorney for Andrea Hendrick, and represented the anonymous whistleblower in the claim against the Grand Haven Board of Light and Power.
The Momentum Center, a non-profit that hosts an anti-racism task force and collects data on people with mental illness, substance use disorder, and intellectual and developmental disabilities is another repeated recipient of GHCF funding. The GHCF also provided funding to Healthy Ottawa, which is one of the organizations that provides support for the Youth Assessment Survey containing invasive personal questions which is given to 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in Ottawa County.
The Reach out and Read Program received $35,000 from the GHCF in 2019. It is a program that provided books to health care providers to give to parents. The recommended Diverse and Inclusive Book List included titles such as Julian is a Mermaid, a book about a young boy who wants to dress like a sparkling mermaid, I Am Enough, A Kids Book About Racism, And Tango Makes Three, a book about two male penguins that adopt a motherless egg. The Diverse and Inclusive Book List recommended, “Avoiding books that contain hurtful racial or ethnic stereotypes, e.g. Little House on the Prairie.” And recommends reading children books that “focus on the 5 F’s (food, fashion, folklore, festivals and famous people).”
A blog guest post from the Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance Operations and marketing Manager Jared Leys thanks the Grand Haven Community Foundation for providing funding that enabled them to provide several free diversity education workshops in 2016 and 2017.
The following list shows other organizations that have received GHCF funding which appear to have facilitated Grand Haven’s transformation into American Marxism.
2016 Third Quarter Grants
$7,000 to St. John’s Episcopal Church to bring Project N to the area. Project N focuses on implicit bias, racism, and personal identity.
$7,000 Grand Haven Schools Foundation for Social Emotion Learning
$2,000 Youth Assessment Survey
$15,000 to GHAPS for Mindfulness Project
$234,507 Ottawa County DEI Office
$75,000 Our LGBT Fund to end LGBT homelessness in West Michigan
$5,000 to Extended Grace for Mental Illness (Momentum Center)
$75,000 Momentum Center for teen mental health
$35,000 Reach out and Read Program – Diverse books given to kids by health care providers
$12,005 Grand Haven Area Sustainability Leadership Committee
$12,000 to GHAPS for SEL and Opportunity Thrive
$4,500 Book Bike – Books on cultural understanding to OAISD
$750 Spring Lake Schools Calling All Colors program
$58,898 Spring Lake Schools for Social Emotion Learning and Trauma Training
May 2020 Covid Grants – The GHCF raised approximately $900,000 from March-May 2020
$10,500 Momentum Center
$20,000 Arbor Circle
$5,000 LAUP – Latin Americans United for Progress
$20,000 St. John’s Episcopal Church Immigrant Relief Fund
$25,000 Arbor Circle for Ottawa Substance Abuse Program (OSAP)
$1,660 GHAPS Community CHILL program for safe spaces
$22,500 Momentum Center for mental health programming
$16,000 Opportunity Thrive
$67,492 Spring Lake Public Schools for Social Emotional Learning
$9,550 Walden Green Montessori for Social Emotional Learning and Trauma Training
$65,000 to Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance (LEDA), Calling All Colors (CAC)
$15,000 to Lakeshore Nonprofit Alliance (LNA) for anti-racism
$13,000 to Momentum Center for Community Conversations on Race and Racism
$15,000 Arbor Circle
$8,000 Momentum Center
$66,625 Momentum Center
$71,000 St. John’s Episcopal Church – immigrant relief fund
$3,000,000 Affordable Housing and impact investment for non-profits to acquire and renovate property
$40,000 Tri Cities Puentes Initiative (TCPI) for Latinx professionals, lived experience, cultural intelligence, identity formation - Rev. Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church is the Co-Chair
$45,275 Opportunity Thrive
$20,000 Ottawa County Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion GARE
$100,000 Tri Cities Puentes Initiative (TCPI) for Latinx professionals, lived experience, cultural intelligence, identity formation - Rev. Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church is the Co-Chair
$10,000 LEDA
If you are one of our financially successful community members, I urge you to please take the time to understand how your money will be used if you choose to donate it to charity. Unfortunately, you can no longer trust someone with a nice smile that says “thank you, we plan to use your money to help children with their mental and emotional health.” Words are actively being redefined to conceal hidden agendas, and funding these efforts is extremely destructive to society. Thank you for generously giving to initiatives that have supported Grand Haven, but from now on, please ask questions and perform research to ensure your donations will be used in a way that aligns with your values. The wealth that you kindly share was earned over many years of successful, dedicated work in your profession, so please don’t allow it to be used to undermine the very capitalist system that made it possible.