Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series.
 
BATTLE CREEK, MI — The first-ever Dreamers Ball in Battle Creek will bring the community together to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. while creating endowment funds for nonprofits focused on serving the underserved and disenfranchised.
 
The event begins at 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 20 at Kellogg Arena with a dinner and reception, followed by a program. It will culminate with music, dancing, and opportunities to reflect on Dr. King’s lasting legacy, says Dr. L.E. Johnson, Senior Director for Inclusion and Diversity with the Village Network that is hosting the event.
 
“MLK Day is probably one of the most celebrated holidays among those who are into any form of justice and in our community. We have not always had a communitywide celebration of Dr. King and so we felt it was good to leverage the unity around the ideas of Dr. King to host our event in the form of a Dreamers Ball to remember his vision,” Johnson says. 

“It’s open to the entire community and it is a Ball. We intentionally named it a Ball rather than a banquet because we intend to have a time of joy, celebration, and community. It’s not going to be your average nonprofit event. We want people to come out and just enjoy themselves and one another.”
 
The hope is for the Dreamers Ball to become the city’s signature event to honor Dr. King.
 
Johnson says Dr. Nakia Baylis, Executive Director of the Village Network, wanted to ensure that the event is as accessible to as many people as possible. Donations to participate begin at $5, in addition, there are sponsorship levels that begin at $1,000 and go up to $25,000.
 
Funds raised from the Dreamers Ball will be split among 11 BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color)-led and focused nonprofits in Battle Creek that will use their allocations to establish endowment funds, says Lynn Ward Gray, Senior Development Officer with the Battle Creek Community Foundation (BCCF). BCCF and the 12 nonprofits, including BC Diaper Drive, the Burma Center, and Milk Like Mine are event partners.
 
In addition to hosting the event, the Village Network is also an event partner.
 
Ward Gray says BCCF is handing the tickets and sponsorships for the endowment funds established from the funds collected.
 
Seeding the future
 
The idea to focus on the creation of endowment funds resulted from work Ward Gray was involved in during her time as President of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Battle Creek Branch.
 
For the past two years, about 30 BIPOC-led organizations in the city have been receiving support and guidance from the Nonprofit Network based In Jackson through a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF). The Nonprofit Network’s mission is to “support nonprofits in building governance, management, and organizational strength,” according to its website.
 
“I sit at that table representing the NAACP,” Ward Gray says. “At one of the most recent retreats with the Nonprofit Network, we were envisioning our collective impact and how we could work together to further our impact. As so often happens, the conversation is about writing grants and finding donors or doing events. I posed to the group the establishment of an endowment as a way to support organizations being helped by the Nonprofit Network.”
 
As that get-together was concluding, Ward Gray says she was hearing discussions about the constant challenge of finding funding to keep the doors open and support the work that each organization is doing.
 
With her BBCF hat on, she posed the question of creating endowment funds to support the work being done.
 
“As you build the endowment it alleviates the anxiety about chasing the next grant or new donors,” Ward Gray says. “We set out on a mission to educate BIPOC-led organizations about endowment funds. At the same time the Village Network was planning this Ball and they offered their event as a platform to raise endowment funds for participating organizations.”
 
The idea was presented to each of the 30 nonprofits and 11 of them decided to participate. BCCF is working with the Village Network and Nonprofit Network to create a back-end link and a repository for the funds collected.
 
“Whatever is raised through the Ball will be split 11 ways for these organizations to have these endowments,” Ward Gray says. “We’re creating capacity-building and substantiality through these endowment funds.”
 
The goal is to have a minimum of $5,000 in each endowment fund which means the goal is raising at least $55,000 through the Ball. BCCF will work with each of the nonprofits to establish their endowments.
 
Known as the BIPOC Battle Creek Endowment Collaborative pilot, Ward Gray says, “We are in an education mode with BIPOC organizations around endowments. The Ball is a way to collectively come together and support one another on Dr. King’s birthday recognize his contributions and let the community know how they can support these organizations.”
 
 
Building on mission, honoring a legacy
 
The Village Network was established as a nonprofit organization in January 2023, as a coalition-building organization that helps create and sustain networking for historically, chronically, and systemically under-invested people to achieve economic justice, says Baylis.
 
The synergy between it and the Nonprofit Network and BCCF is highlighted in information about the Dreamer’s Ball.
 
“The Nonprofit Network has been strategically supporting BIPOC Battle Creek nonprofit leaders over the past two years; The Battle Creek Community Foundation has been supporting community-driven mission endowments for the past 50 years; The Village Network of Battle Creek has been organizing nonprofit organizations since its 2019 inception.”
 
Johnson says he wanted to see a different take on the city’s MLK observances. Among the events that were held was one that focused on the state of Battle Creek’s African American community. That will likely take place in February, he says.
 
“I thought it would be beautiful to bring the community together under this idea of celebration. It’s one thing to remember MLK’s legacy and it’s another thing to celebrate it,” Johnson says. “The Dreamers Ball is a signature event to bring the whole community together to celebrate, invigorate, and instigate a positive contagion to give people joy and strength to work towards an equitable Battle Creek where we can all thrive together.”