By the end of the semester, Hillsdale College won’t be the only place you could find A Few Good Men.
The organization’s board of directors is working with a lawyer in town to file the paperwork to officially become a Michigan nonprofit: their first step toward involvement on a national scale.
AFGM was founded in the spring semester of 2012 by senior Ben Holscher with the goal to build bridges of service between the college and the community.
“There’s always someone with a need,” said senior Ben Hindle, the organization’s chief financial officer.
Last year, AFGM experienced an explosion of needs in the community and a huge increase of interest among students. In the three semesters of its existence, AFGM has grown from one work crew to 13. In an effort to involve more people from the community in service, AFGM made the decision to become a nonprofit.
“We don’t want to be a college organization,” Hindle said. “We want to be a community effort, bringing in new people every day.”
This idea was realized with a roofing project completed this summer. Members of AFGM, local churches, and the Hillsdale community came together to reroof the home of Hillsdale resident Edith Lawrence. Both Hillsdale Free Methodist and Jonesville Lumber contributed to the project.
“Seeing the local businesses participate with zeal and gratitude was wonderful to see,” member and senior Nathan Seither said. “[It was] a real community project.”
AFGM hopes to promote interest in community work projects within the Hillsdale community itself. Recently, AFGM has taken action to get more Hillsdale residents involved.
“I realized that what we’re doing at the college will really do the most benefit if we can spread the vision into the community,” Holscher said. “Our goal developed from simply to bridge build between Hillsdale College and Hillsdale community to being a growth of vision and ownership of Hillsdale community within the community.”
Another reason for the change in status is outside interest in starting related organizations.
“I’ve already spoken with many people who are interested in starting a similar program in their own communities,” Holscher said.
According to Holscher and Hindle, AFGM is working to establish a model of leadership and operations so newly-developing organizations can have a pattern to use. The board hopes that their mission to meet community needs will catch on.
“We would love to see this thing go national,” Hindle said.
According to Director of Communications and junior Anna Shoffner, AFGM has developed brochures, yard signs, and radio spots to spread awareness of AFGM’s mission.
“[It’s] opportunity for individuals to live out their beliefs in a very practical, tangible, applicable way so that our frustration with the state of our nation doesn’t stop with rhetoric and words and arguments,” Holscher said. “It goes on to spur us to action in the most beautiful way possible, which is helping and serving other people.”