About Matthew Engel

I grew up in Ogden Dunes, Indiana, a community of 1,300 on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. It was the kind of place where neighbors feel like family and showing up for one another isn't optional, it's simply who you are. That close-knit community shaped my character, my values, and the vision I carried for the kind of life I wanted to build one day. After graduating high school, I moved around the country pursing an education and career, living in cities large and small, but I never found another place that felt quite like home — until I met my amazing wife, Michelle (Richards). Through her, I was introduced to this community that I'm now proud to call home.

Michelle and I are building our family in Allendale - not just in this community, but of this community. Our children will be the fifth generation of the Richards family to call Allendale home, a legacy that stretches back to a time when the land we're raising them on was a working family mink farm. That same piece of ground, once defined by early mornings, harsh winters, and the grit and determination of generations before us, is now where our kids will laugh and play and grow into the people they're meant to be. That was important to us.

And that kind of rootedness shapes how I see things. When you're raising your kids on the same dirt their great-great-grandparents walked before them, you don't think in two or four year cycles. You think in decades, in generations. You think about what endures.

I'm deeply invested in this community, not as a campaign slogan but as a daily practice. Anyone who's witnessed what our family is building here would attest. I believe strong schools are the backbone of strong towns, and that a good public education is a key to a thriving community. In a time of rapid technological change, shifting workforce demands, and unprecedented pressure on educators and students alike, we need school board members who understand where we've come from but, more importantly, where we're headed. We need board members that want to be allies, not adversaries.

I'm not a politician. I'm a parent, a neighbor, and a steward of a family story that has been written here for five generations and will hopefully be for many more to come. I want my children — and yours — to look back and know that when it mattered, the adults in the room showed up and worked together to give them the foundation they deserved. That work needs to start now, and I'm ready to get after it. I'd be honored to earn your vote.

- Matthew Engel

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