Who We Are – Neighbors of Belknap Lookout

Neighbors of Belknap Lookout (NOBL) is a neighborhood association. Our boundaries are College, Leonard, Michigan and the Grand River. Our neighbors live on the ancestral lands of the Anishnaabe people, the People of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi.

Street map of the Belknap Lookout neighborhood

Board and Staff

NOBL is governed by a volunteer board of directors. Its bylaws call for 5 to 9 members. We try to maintain a full contingent of nine. For the past several years, NOBL has had a single paid staff member. She serves as Executive Director and Community Organizer. Recently, we have also hosted social work interns from Grand Valley State University. Learn more about current board and staff members by toggling the drop down below:

Current Members

Board

Cassidy Cvanciger (she/her): I recently moved my State Farm office from the southeast side of downtown to the Belknap Lookout neighborhood, and absolutely love the area, the people, and the community. I would love to help the development and neighborhood in any way that I can. I’m a local small business owner since 2018, my office opened in 2019. I have extensive experience in insurance (10 years), financial planning (9 years), community claims, residential and commercial development/construction (10 years), and new business development for new business owners (3 years). I’m also a key member of the GR “Boss Babes” group, and have created my own “Women’s Business/Professional” group that consists of 26 women across West Michigan that has been going on since early 2019. I’m always looking for ways to improve and grow, and hope to bring some value to NOBL.

Marshall Grate (he/him): I am interested in joining the board because I am committed to make our neighborhood the best place to live in the City. The experiences I bring to fulfill this role: I am currently on the Development committee. I am an attorney with some experience in municipal law.

Scott Huebl (Treasurer, he/him): I am interested in joining the board because I view giving back to my community as a privilege and a responsibility. I would like to see the Belknap Neighborhood be a wonderful place to live for its diverse residents. The experiences I bring to fulfill this role are the many years I spent in corporate management and sitting on the boards of various organizations. I believe my accounting background would be beneficial to the NOBL board and, hence, the Belknap neighborhood.

Scot Kellogg (he/him): I am interested in the neighborhood real estate market and business district. I would like to make sure it is accessible for its residents. I am the owner and broker of 616 Realty located in the Belknap area at 1171 Plainfield Ave NE. We have 85 residential real estate agents.

Ben Malloy (Vice Chair, he/him): Belknap Lookout is a beautiful neighborhood filled with talented and amazing residents. I want to find ways to connect residents with one another to make it feel like a true community. This will make our neighborhood a fun and safe place to live and provide opportunities for inclusion for all who live here. I have served on NOBL’s Public Safety and Community Development committees for the last year. In this capacity, I have learned about the needs of our neighborhood and the tools we have at our disposal to work towards meeting those needs. I have helped coordinate Restorative Practice training to help enhance our ability to resolve disputes that arise within our community, brought a monthly food truck event to Lookout Park, and continue to work with the residents of Fairview to help find safe and equitable solutions to the unwanted activity that occurs at the parks along those streets.

Dan Miller (he/him): I have lived in the Belknap Lookout neighborhood since 2007 and am eager to play a role in helping it to become a safer community, a more affordable community, and a community with a wider range of services and amenities. I have served on the NOBL Board for the past three years and on the Community Development Committee for two years. I have served as the Board Secretary and am currently the acting President. Those experiences have taught me a lot about how the Board works and have given me a chance to meet and work with many residents who are active in the neighborhood.

Ellie Walborn-Henry (Secretary, she/her) – Community is important now more than ever, but there is equity work to be done. This work must be done at every level, from individual, family, neighborhoods, workplace, government, and the larger systems of oppression. I have always been a champion for the perspective of those who often go unheeded. Our neighborhood is divided. Microaggression is a very real issue here. The work of a neighborhood association is absolutely necessary, provided that work is done well. As a board member I would work tirelessly to help us acknowledge past inequities, build trust, and work to unite rather than police neighbors. We have a beautiful neighborhood with a rich history and it deserves our time and attention.

Lara Dengerink Van Til (Chair, she/her): I am interested in maintaining our neighborhood and parks for all of our community members to have a safe, accessible, walkable, beautiful neighborhood. I have diverse experience working in healthcare, education & community of neighborhood development. I have lived in the Belknap neighborhood for 15 years and all 3 of my children attend Coit school.

Will Witt (he/him): I’m interested in this position because it is my neighborhood and I wish to make a positive impact for all the families of Belknap. My experience that will enable me to successfully complete this role is business at the international level as well as being a local business owner myself.

Staff

Elianna Bootzin, Executive Director and Community Organizer (she/her) – Elianna came to NOBL in 2017 with 7 years of nonprofit administration experience, accumulated through several positions at Feeding America West Michigan. Some of her favorite adventures living in Belknap during that time include gardening, sledding at Mary Waters Park, and more recently dog walking. You can learn more about her in an interview with our partners at New Development Corporation.

Special thanks to Annette Vandenburg at West Grand Neighborhood Organization. She provides MSW supervision of our social work interns.

NOBL created a strategic plan in the spring of 2021. We redefined our mission, vision, and values. We confirmed that our main focus should be on our residents, particularly those who are low income. We then identified which activities should be carried out over the next three years. These activities exemplify our values.

We invite you to read the strategic plan here.

With the rest of this page, we will be Accountable. We believe in keeping our meetings and our records open to our neighbors. In the sections that follow, you can find the full set of materials from the last few years of meetings. We then specifically call out the quarterly financials starting with 2021. We also post the “tax” returns we submit annually to the IRS. This filing is called a 990.