Torch, Fall/Winter 2010

Fall–Winter 2010 | TORCH 29 There’s a grill sizzling somewhere in the neighborhood over at Eastern Avenue and Logan Street SE as a group of teens soaks up the hot afternoon air, now scented with cooking meat. Curtis Long sniffs the air hungrily. “Smells good,” the 19-year-old says. Neighborhood kids chatter in backyard play and rush hour cars rumble past as the Rev. Arlan Palmer ’84 chats with these young men from the inner city. He has mentored some of them for years. The young men joke as they sit on the neighborhood church steps, jostling each other to fit. “It’s OK,” Long says, as they squeeze close together. “We’re family.” Palmer is the neighborhood chaplain for Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church, where he meets weekly with teens, and chaplain at Wedgwood Christian Services, a Grand Rapids nonprofit that helps kids and families dealing with abuse and neglect, substance abuse, and behavioral problems. He has made a life’s mission out of helping troubled youngsters heal — and shepherding kids, like these young men, hoping they’ll stay out of trouble. A Larger Purpose In his 25 years at Wedgwood, Palmer has met hundreds of struggling teens who had to start life on their own after foster care ended, but weren’t emotionally ready. So he decided to be a foster parent. More than 40 teens have come under his care over the years, a feat recognized and awarded by the state of Michigan. “He has touched the lives of so many kids, you would not believe,” says Kent County Probate Judge Patricia Gardner, who has known Palmer for 10 years. Gardner says she hears his name all the time from the high-risk kids she sees in her job as juvenile court judge. “His name is often spoken by kids as they recount their successes,” she says. “They’ll say, ‘I’m in a group with Arlan Palmer’ or ‘Pastor Palmer helped get me a job’ or ‘Pastor Palmer got me extra school help’ or ‘Pastor Palmer helped me visit a college.’” Connected to the Community Palmer’s laugh seems to come from his toes. It’s huge and hearty, and he uses it often. But his life’s work is serious. The young people at Wedgwood “have layer upon layer of brokenness,” says LeRae Kuperus, another chaplain at Wedgwood, who has worked with Palmer for 12 years. “Most have suffered abuse and neglect; they feel abandoned. It’s very difficult for them to trust people.”