Pathfinder Flag by Dixie Plata – Pathfinder Historian
It is with great pride that Pathfinders and their leaders march carrying the Pathfinder Flag, which identifies them as part of the worldwide Pathfinder organization.
At a Pathfinder Fair or Camporee it is a thrill to see each club flag, identified by their club name, flying in the breeze beside the entrance to their camp or carefully posted at the fair booth. On Pathfinder Sabbath’s and other special occasions, on the platform, the Pathfinder flag is posted to the left of the speaker and next to the Christian Flag. On the right of the speaker the state flag is posted to the right of our countries flag.
Who came up with the idea of a flag for Pathfinders and why did we need one?
There is a short explanation; Henry T. Bergh who felt we needed a flag to help identify us with the Pathfinder Organization.
The longer version is more interesting. In 1948 when Elder Henry T. Bergh – Youth Director for the Central California Conference helped to begin 23 clubs in his conference, he envisioned Pathfinder Camping, Pathfinder Leadership Events, Special Pathfinder programs in churches and Pathfinder Fairs where all the Conference Clubs would yearly come together.
Elder Bergh was a visionary person – he prayed that the Pathfinder Ministry would grow in his conference and around the world. There was a Pathfinder Uniform – dark green dresses for the girls and kaki shirts and pants for the boys. His colleague from the Southeastern California Conference, John H. Hancock, had designed an emblem to be worn on the uniform sleeve. Henry had even written a booklet on “How To Start A Pathfinder Club” but there was no banner to identify the clubs if they chose to march in a local parade or participate in a community or church event.
He thought and prayed about what such a banner would look like and decided that it would need the emblem, Elder Hancock had designed, located in the center but other than that he wasn’t sure about colors. He went to one of his coordinators, Hilda Jean Martin, and asked her if she could sew a Pathfinder Flag for him to use for an upcoming Pathfinder event.
It just happened that this particular coordinator was not a seamstress but she had a friend, Helen Hobbs, that was. The two ladies got together with Bergh’s sketch and talked about what they thought the flag should look like. They were aware of the 3’ x 5’ flag size and thought that a good place to start. The Pathfinder Emblem was made up of red, gold and blue with white in the center and a gold sword through it… so a red flag wouldn’t do nor a yellow gold flag as the emblem would get “lost” in such a color scheme. With laying out various colors they felt that a flag of blue, which stood for loyalty, and white for purity, would
be just right to highlight the emblem. Helen Hobbs became the “Betsy Ross” for Pathfinders sewing the first flag.
The flag in the photo – from the Sebastopol Pathfinder Club was made by a 16 year old teen by the name of Alvin Anderson. The flag was purchased and he made the emblem using felt, you may notice that it has MV in the center as Missionary Volunteers was the name for the teen groups at that time (AY now – Adventist Youth). Alvin was involved in Pathfinders in the Central California Conference for more than 60 years. He personally gave the flag to the Plata’s for the Adventist Youth Ministries Museum. Since his death his daughters have donated his uniform and other personal Pathfinder items to the museum that you will be able to see when the museum in built in Battle Creek, Michigan.
