The Degage difference earns GRBA Liberty Bell Award

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LEGAL NEWS PHOTOS BY CYNTHIA PRICE

by Cynthia Price
Legal News

It is clear that the faith-based Dégagé  Ministries, located in the Heartside neighborhood, views its expression of Christianity as moving beyond charity.
“We do things on an empowerment versus a charitable model,” says Dégagé Executive Director Marge Palmerlee.

Dégagé not only serves three meals a day, offers a food pantry and distributes clothing and blankets, but also provides a place where homeless or challenged people in the neighborhood can come for social interaction and community love.

Palmerlee paraphrases a famous quote by Mother Theresa: “We often think of poverty as being hungry and homeless, but the real poverty is feeling unloved and unwanted.

“Often when someone is homeless or in a situation they didn’t expect, they feel so all alone, so we come alongside them and walk with them through whatever journey they’re experiencing.”

Or as one of the frequent visitors to Dégagé puts it on the video clip featured on the organization’s website, “It’s like family in here, they’re friends.”
The organization did not escape the attention of well-respected local attorney L. Roland “Bud” Roegge, of Smith Haughey Rice and Roegge, who joined Dégagé’s board in 2008 and is now its vice-president.

Himself the recipient of the 2006 Grand Rapids Bar Association Donald R. Worsfold Distinguished Service Award, Roegge decided to nominate Dégagé for the Liberty Bell Award.

Bar associations and even courts throughout the country annually give the Liberty Bell Award, which honors a non-lawyer or non-profit organization making an outstanding contribution to the cause of justice to advancing public awareness of the Constitution and the U.S. legal system, and/or to strengthening some part of that system.

Few, however, realize that the Liberty Bell Award had its origins in Michigan. Norman Otto Stockmeyer, a Thomas M. Cooley professor, wrote an article in the 1992 Michigan Bar Journal, which gives credit to a Flint attorney, William Daniel.

In 1962, when Daniel was a member of the State Bar of Michigan (SBM) Young Lawyers Section, he proposed the award, which was given starting the following year. The American Bar Association approved Young Lawyers Sections around the U.S. giving the award in 1964, and the ABA still distributes the characteristic Liberty Bell Award plaques used across the country.

Daniel himself received a Distinguished Service Award for creation of the Liberty Bell Award, given him by the Michigan Lawyers Auxiliary in 1990.
The SBM has given a statewide Liberty Bell Award since 1986.

In his 1992 article, Stockmeyer stresses that the Liberty Bell Award helps draw public attention to Law Day as not just a day for lawyers, but a celebration of the role our legal system has played in shaping the country and people’s daily lives.

Past recipients of the GRBA award include Lyman S. Parks, the first African-American mayor of Grand Rapids; James K. Haveman, who later became the Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Health, given in 1990 when he was the director of Bethany Christian Services; Lee Nelson Weber, Program Director of the Dyer-Ives Foundation and community activist; and, in 2003, the Dispute Resolution Center.

Palmerlee says it is “very humbling to received an award of this magnitude, to be honored for work that I feel privileged to be able to do.” She continued, “Of course an award like this is never earned in a vacuum, and we have a staff who all feel very passionate about this work. And of course, it’s also because of 1200 volunteers and twelve wonderful board members.”

There were two tables of Dégagé well-wishers, including staff, Roegge, and board president Susan Rechner, at the Law Day Luncheon and Awards Ceremony on May 3.

A number of Calvin Students started Dégagé in 1967 as a coffee house where students could come and hang out. Dégagé became a full-fledged ministry as Division Street was starting to gain the reputation of a not necessarily safe,  “Skid-Row”-type area.

The founders did not expect Dégagé to last more than a couple years, and Palmerlee says that when one of them moved back into the area about 15 years ago, he was surprised to see what it had become. He became a volunteer.

Dégagé offers Heartsiders personal care services including showers and a hair salon, counseling and therapy such as substance abuse support, pet therapy, music therapy, and a mentoring program, and postal mailing address service as well as voice mail. The complex includes a health and fitness center and locker rental.

Dégagé charges for a lot of its service, though at much lower than the going rate. At the same time, the ministry offers Heartsiders the opportunity to perform jobs which earn them vouchers, enabling them to afford to pay 25 cents for a cup of coffee or $2 for locker rental.

Palmerlee, who has worked for Dégagé 16 years, was formerly in the accounting department at Rogers Department Store and says the job took her out of her comfort zone, though she had volunteered at Dégagé for years.

“In the Heartside neighborhood, we are the community center, that safe place where people can come in off the streets,” says Palmerlee. “We relate with them on a level other than just client-service provider, we develop strong relationships. We work diligently on getting to know them.”

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