a TREE OF LIFE building campaign
100 STUDENTS ARE WAITING…
Together, we can make room for them.
Expanding Tree of Life. Strengthening families. Transforming a neighborhood for generations.
Tree of Life has reached a defining moment. More than 100 children wanted a place in our school this year, but we simply did not have room. Through the ROOTED Campaign, we are preparing to acquire and transform the building next door—creating one connected Christ-centered campus where 300+ students can learn, worship, grow and discover who God created them to be!
ONE CAMPUS. ONE COMMUNITY. ONE FUTURE.
For years, Tree of Life has dreamed of making room for more children. Now, the opportunity to grow is literally right next door.
The Fulford Building at 2022 Fulford Avenue, located directly beside Tree of Life School, gives us an extraordinary opportunity to expand without leaving the Edison Neighborhood we have called home for more than 15 years.
Through the ROOTED Campaign, we plan to acquire and transform this historic building and create one connected, Christ-centered campus for Tree of Life School and Path of Life High School.
The expanded campus will allow us to:
Welcome more children who are currently waiting for a Tree of Life education
Bring Path of Life High School home to the same campus as our K–8 students
Create additional classrooms and student-support spaces
Build a full-size gymnasium connecting the campus
Expand opportunities for worship, athletics and community gatherings
Create spaces for hands-on learning, entrepreneurship and life-skills development
Grow toward serving 300+ students
NEW STUDENTS
STORIES TALL
SQUARE FEET
MILLION DOLLARS
the Edison neighborhood
God is Moving
Edison is Kalamazoo’s largest and most impoverished neighborhood. Despite its beautiful diversity, many children face the realities of poverty, including trauma, food insecurity, violence, and financial hardship. But Tree of Life didn’t simply land in Edison, God planted us here.
staying put
For more than 16 years, Tree of Life has been rooted in Edison, walking alongside children and families through education, housing, food, transportation, counseling, and the love of Christ. We’ve witnessed God transform lives in powerful ways. And that’s why we aren’t expanding out of Edison.
Deeper roots
Rather than leaving the Edison neighborhood, our goal is to stay and grow deeper roots in the community. The building right behind us becoming available feels like God opening the door at exactly the right time, providing the space we need to grow our school while remaining right where He planted us.
the fruit is already growing
%
annual reading growth
%
Student retention
%
of household income
We’ve seen what happens when a child is given a place to belong, learn, worship and grow.
Now we need room for the children still waiting.
HANDS-ON LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
This expanded space opens the door for unique, hands-on learning opportunities that help students grow in skill, responsibility, and creativity. We are exploring ideas that can teach entrepreneurship, stewardship, and sustainability while also creating pathways for school-generated income, such as:
Solar Energy Integration
Student-Run Coffee Shop
Agricultural Spaces
help us make ROOM
The ROOTED Campaign is a $6.5 million capital campaign to acquire and transform the Fulford Building and create one connected campus where Tree of Life School and Path of Life High School can grow together.
It is a significant goal because the opportunity before us is significant.
This campaign will help us secure the building, renovate and prepare it for students, expand educational and student-support spaces, create a full-size gymnasium, bring our high school home to the Tree of Life campus, and make room to serve 300+ students and their families.
We cannot do it alone.
We are asking individuals, families, churches, foundations, businesses and community partners to prayerfully consider how they might become part of ROOTED.
Perhaps what you have to give isn’t a check. Perhaps it’s something ROOTED needs.
We invite businesses, tradespeople and community partners to talk with us about how their skills, services or resources might help make this vision possible.
help hope take root
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a Tree of Life”
Proverbs 13:12
100 children are waiting. Let’s make room.
“My heart breaks for the children of Edison. I see their suffering, but I also see the love of Christ poured out daily—needs being met, learning taking root, and joy rising where heaviness once lived. And yet, even in this hope, 100 children still stand at the door, waiting to be welcomed in.”
JENNIFER