Amid the grand opening excitement Sunday for the new $3.8 million community center at Everett’s First Baptist Church, some church members paused to consider:
Just three months ago, a big question mark hung over the project. The church faced a final, key decision.
The issue was whether it had enough money to complete the interior work on the upper floor of the 33,000-square-foot structure, or if it should wait and do it later.
It was no small decision. Going ahead would mean perhaps two decades of debt and interest payments that would add about $1.2 million to the overall project.
“I was probably the most conservative of the board members,” said Brian Harpell, the church’s senior pastor. “I didn’t want us to overextend ourselves.”
Harpell’s instinct was to wait, to not jump so deeply into debt. But some members of the committee urged the group to push ahead.
Church members had dreamed for more than two decades of having a building in downtown Everett that would serve as a meeting place for the community, offering free volleyball and basketball leagues for children and adults, family karate lessons, after-school tutoring programs, and drama and art classes.
A decision had to be made quickly. The construction company was waiting for an answer. It would be more expensive for them to leave and come back.
There was one more thing to weigh, church members told Harpell: the possibility of a rumored donation that could come by the end of the year.
“We had to make a decision before we really knew if we had it,” Harpell said. “We proceeded with a lot of faith.” And perhaps, even, a little unspoken worry.
The goal was to open the building at 3120 Wetmore Ave. by Christmas. Harpell wanted to decorate it with a big red ribbon, a symbol of how the church thought of the building, as its gift to the community.
But as anyone who has ever weathered a building project knows, not everything goes according to plan.
A decision was made to push back the open house until January. Then, in late December, Harpell got a call from the head of the church’s foundation.
“You may want to sit down,” he told Harpell. The reason: Attorneys had just informed the church of a gift from Roberta Miller. The lifelong church member, who died in October 2004, when she was 82 years old, had bequeathed $1 million to the project from her estate.
The donation wasn’t announced for two weeks. It was such a surprise, Harpell said, “we wanted to make sure the check was in hand.”
On Jan. 7, when church members were told, the congregation responded with tears, applause, and cheers.
Miller’s donation “was beyond our wildest dreams,” said church member Mary Elaine Burgess.
Miller had “pushed the church as hard as she possibly could” to get behind the project, Harpell said. When final approval to launch it was announced several years ago, Miller said: “I’m so glad. This should have been done 15 years ago.”
Meetings were organized to ask for financial support. But Miller was too ill to attend.
Harpell drove to her mobile home on 112th Street SE, where she had lived for about a decade following the death of her husband. Miller, who grew up during the Great Depression, chose to live modestly.
It was the spring of 2004. Miller had just gotten out of the hospital, Harpell said. She was in failing health and had difficulty breathing.
As excited as she was about the project, she told Harpell that she couldn’t make a donation. Her money was tied up in real estate, she explained. “I can’t do something right now, but I will do something,” she told Harpell.
“That’s where we left it,” he said.
Miller’s gift not only saves the church 20 years of interest payments, but also cuts the church’s loan to $500,000, Harpell said, freeing up money for programming that would have gone to loan payments.
The building’s upper floor has rooms for after-school tutoring and a computer lab. Special rooms outfitted with games and big-screen TVs are set aside for middle school and high school students. Another room is dedicated to drama and the arts.
Downstairs, there’s a gym that can be used for basketball and volleyball games.
Miller “saw the children and young people of our church and community as those she wanted to reach out to,” Harpell said. “We’ve got exciting days ahead.”
Bob Dixon, who formerly taught at Seattle Pacific University and has written textbooks on physics and astronomy, will launch a student tutoring program on Tuesdays beginning this week.
“I’m particularly interested in helping students with the WASL,” the state-mandated test of learning skills, Dixon said.
“Mainly it will be word-of-mouth,” he said. “If I can satisfy the students who come, they’ll be telling others.”
First Baptist has a rich history that dates back to its founding on April 17, 1892, said David Dilgard, a history specialist for the Everett Public Library. The church initially conducted services out of a chapel car or converted railcar, called Evangel.
“There are stories that get told and retold in the life of our church,” Harpell said, including some of people who made sacrifices for its future.
One is about a woman who cleaned houses; she helped raise money to buy the church’s first organ.
Now Miller’s story will join that legacy, Harpell said, one of those stories “that we’ll be able to tell the next generation again and again.”
About the center
The First Baptist Churchs Community Center will offer free volleyball, basketball and karate classes this week for children and adults as part of its grand opening celebration. After-school tutoring will be held on Tuesdays from 2:30 to 5 p.m. beginning this week. The building is at 3120 Wetmore Ave. in Everett. Call 425-259-9166 for information.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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