History of the Evergreen Pathfinder Club

Thanks to Sylvia (Fagal) Marsh, a member of the first PMC Evergreen Pathfinder Club, who originally compiled this history for the 1987 Pathfinder Fair, Lansing, Michigan
 
In 1953, Lenard D. Jaecks began the Emmanuel Missionary College (EMC) Church Pathfinder Club when he was a junior in college. 

The Club was first given two quonset huts that stood behind old Burman Hall and were formerly housing for married students.  The sidewalk that now runs along the front of Marsh Hall to Smith Hall passes directly through where the line of rounded, tin-roof huts sat.  The huts were inadequate and Mr. Jaecks soon August 25, 2004 f the original chapel building in West Hall. Lenard Jaecks had the club running approximately a year when Milo Sawvel arrived as a Freshman.  Sawvel was a busy man.  Already married, he was a full-time student, working full-time doing night guard duty and giving Bible studies.  Jaecks began asking Sawvel to help with the Pathfinder Club, but Sawvel felt he just did not have the time. 

The next school year, Sawvel and Jaecks took a class together, giving Jaecks the chance to press Sawvel regarding Pathfinders.  "Drop your Bible studies and help us!" Jaecks pleaded.  Sawvel finally agreed during the winter of 1954, his Sophomore year, to come to a club meeting.  When he arrived for his first look at the 35-40-member club, Jaecks introduced Sawvel as the new deputy director!  Jaecks would be graduating in the spring of 1955 and he was anxious to put the club into a successor's hands. Milo Sawvel was asked to take club directorship by Hans L. Rasmussen, faculty sponsor of the club.  While Sawvel worked night guard duty at Simplicity Patterns in Niles, he learned marching by drilling himself.  In those night sessions he also developed the point system used by Pathfinder clubs. Sawvel rapidly developed an extremely active program with Mrs. Forrest (Mina) Ferguson as a counselor and girls'director, Mrs. Russel Dalson, and Mrs. and Mrs. Gordon Prenier as counselors.

In the 1950s many people worried about evacuations due to natural disasters or to atom-bomb alerts.  Not surprisingly, being ready for emergencies and able to "live off the land" were high on Sawvel's list of priorities.  Together with Alice G. Marsh, a dietitian and head of the Homes Economics Department at EMC,  Sawvel developed a Survival Kit.  This was an 11 x 7 x 5-inch box that held enough food to supply a person with 3,000 calories a day for three days, water purification tablets, and material to help identify edible wild plants.  If necessary, the food staples included in the kit could be stretched to sustain a person for seven days.  Worthington Foods, Inc., participated in similar experiments by furnishing foods and sterile water for tryouts. The Sawvel and Marsh families, along with several Evergreen Pathfinders, tested this kit on a rainy weekend in the "wilderness" near Rose City, Michigan, in 1959.  The campers carried sleeping bags, knapsacks with personal needs and first aid supplies, canteens, and scout cook-kits.  Wild berries and greens added variety to the provisions in the Survival Kits.  Water from a nearby trout stream at the camp site was purified for drinking using the tablets in the kits.  Camping conditions were chosen to simulate emergency evacuation camping as nearly as possible.  Campers prepared bread, eggs, beans, potatoes, soup, and pancakes using staples from their Survival Kits. Pathfinders twelve years of age or older could join the Disaster Corps.  In addition to their Pathfinder uniforms, they wore army helmets painted white with red crosses, white jackets, and white belts.  They were trained in first aid and were ready to step in to a disaster situation.

Sawvel wanted the club to have its own meeting place, and approached the church pastor, J. L. Tucker, and the college business manager, V. E. Garber, asking for the old Math Annex to be moved down the hill by Lemon Creek to the site where the present Pathfinder Building now stands.  Sawvel had found a contractor who would move it for $500.  However, the deal never materialized, for Sawvel was called into the ministry in 1956 and moved to Jackson, Michigan. Bill Edsell took over the club and directed it for two years.  In 1958, Dr. Irven Collins followed Bill Edsell as director for two years, from the Fall of 1958 to August of 1960.  Dr. Collins and his wife, Doris, took the Evergreens to the Youth Congress in Atlantic City in June of 1960.  The troup rented two school buses which functioned according to standard procedure:  both broke down on the return trip.  The Pathfinders spent one unscheduled night in their sleeping bags on the lawn of a Howard Johnson's Lodge. In 1960, Milo Sawvel returned to Berrien Springs and joined the College Church as youth pastor.  He and James Rhodes, the senior pastor, made up the pastoral staff.  Sawvel promptly picked up the plan he had had in 1956 of building a building just for Pathfinders.  The College Church had grown large enough to need two church services each Sabbath.  However, with President Rittenhouse also interested in a new Pathfinder center, plans were made for a special Sabbath Program in the college gym where the church members met together for a "kickoff" service to begin raising funds for the new building.  Elder Sawvel immersed himself in the project, working with Mr. Kriley, the college engineer, and V. E. Garber.  Sawvel did not escape the fund-raising.  He took Pathfinders on field trips selling Life and Health and Listen magazines.  He found things that needed picking:  Pathfinders picked strawberries; they picked Dr. Rice's seven-acre asparagus field at dawn, then cleaned up and went to school; they picked 900 bushels of gourds from a college field (now the athletic track and Meier Hall area).  Ben Schoun was star gourd picker, picking 65 bushels at one time, and Tom Umek was a close second.  In about one and a half years, the $30,000 needed for a new building was in hand.

In 1961 an Aarmco building was erected on ten acres which EMC gave to the Pathfinders for their use.  The ten acres included the "Evergreen Lodge" site and the area around it, the land across Lemon Creek, up the opposite bluff, and additional space at the top of the bluff for camping and field exercises.  The 120 x 60-foot steel structure was dedicated on September 9, 1962 with about 600 in attendance.  Sawvel, who had been instrumental in the construction of the building, noted that the new building could serve as a laboratory for college and Seminary students who wished to learn more about working with young people.  Present for the dedication were World Pathfinder Director L. A. Skinner of the General Conference, Lake Union MV Leader Fred Beavon, Michigan MV Seretary L. C. Caviness, Lake Union Conference President Jere D. Smith, and the local church and school leaders.  An account of the dedication appeared in the September 25, 1962 issue of the Lake Union Herald.