During the 150th anniversary of UMCOR Sager Brown’s Homecoming, James ‘Sonny’ Armelin Jr., left, a retired area Boy Scouts leader for nearly 30 years, received a plaque of appreciation from Quentin Schrock and his Cub Master who also is his mother, Kylie Schrock.

UMCOR Sager Brown celebrated its sesquicentennial, 150th anniversary, Saturday as a homecoming welcoming former students, boy scouts, volunteers, teachers and community leaders from around the nation. Although the focus has changed from its founding, its reach has surely been greater than founders ever imagined.

In 1867 a group of women in New Orleans formed the Orphan’s Home Society Corporation as a means of raising money to provide a home for African American boys who had been orphaned by the Civil War. It was funded primarily by the Freedman’s Aid Society, a predecessor to the Black College Fund of The United Methodist Church and John Baldwin, a plantation owner in St. Mary Parish.

“Sadly there are plenty of people out there who will lead (our young people) in a direction that is not positive,” said Dr. Wanda L. Nelson, a native of St. Joseph community near Franklin.

A former student of Sager Brown Home and Godman Industrial School in Baldwin, Nelson was the keynote speaker. She challenged those in attendance at the homecoming celebration.

“You may choose to do something different but we cannot afford to wait. We must take action now. In full disclosure what I’m asking you to do is not short term that you can do one time and it is over. It would be sustained commitment for a longer period of time. I pray that all former Sager Brown students are a living example of the kinds of men and women the administration, leaders and staff were to us to become (who we are). They gave us their very best efforts,” Nelson said.

In the early 1900s, the Orphan’s Home and Godman Industrial School were in dire financial straits. Dr. and Mrs. Godman took the student choir, the Jubilee Singers, on a tour of the northeastern U.S. to raise money. Mrs. Addie Sager and Mrs. C. W. Brown became familiar with the plight of the organization through a concert given for the North Central New York Methodist Conference. Sager and Brown purchased the school and gave it to the Woman’s Home Mission Society, a forerunner of United Methodist Women, to operate.

The homecoming brochure explained the transition to the facility that it is today. Hurricane Andrew swept across southern Louisiana in 1992 causing widespread property damage, destroying homes and bringing countless lives to a standstill. Through the United Methodist Committee on Relief, or UMCOR, The United Methodist Church began collecting funds and supplies for emergency relief. Emergency shelters and centers were set up and construction materials started arriving. The vacant Sager Brown School in Baldwin was recognized as the perfect place to coordinate relief efforts. Since then, several thousands of volunteers have come annually to assist in the ongoing ministries of home repair and community outreach.

The executive director of UMCOR, Dr. Olusimbo Ige from Atlanta, Georgia, shared the vast reach of the efforts by the program and contributions housed at the former school.

“There are several things to celebrate today, we’re celebrating connections,” Ige said. “We are connected to 2,500 to 3,000 people who stay here annually, 20 different states this year that have benefited from the kits assembled here, 57 different countries this year alone connected through disaster response and 5.3 million people reached this year through the ministry at UMCOR. Me, from the backside of no where, all the way from Nigeria, connected to 37 different nationalities that sit in Atlanta as part of UMCOR. There are many things in our world today that don’t work. I want you to go back remembering the things that do work.”

Ige said one of the things that is right is going beyond bounds to set up an orphanage when it wasn’t special and another to establish a school like the Godman Institute at a time when it was risky to do so.

“One is having thousands of people come together from different walks of life in a world that is so fractured and siloed, that come together to work toward a common mission,” Ige said. “One is having people come from different walks of life so that someone like me can lead an organization that touches 80 different countries. There are many things in our world that are wrong, but there are some things that are right. When you invest in people, it can only be right. When we support our children and encourage them to do better, it can only be right. When we come with the hands and feet of Christ reaching the remote corners of the world, it can only be right. UMCOR Sager Brown is right.”

A number of plaques and awards were presented during the program, including one to longtime boy scout troop leader James “Sonny” Armelin Jr. ,whose former troop recited the pledge, boy scout code and sang a marching song as they celebrated their former leader. The crowd of more than 200 applauded enthusiastically as each speaker, including Baldwin mayor Donna Lanceslin, read a proclamation designating Oct. 21 as UMCOR Sager Brown Day.

Sager Brown Sesquicentennial Committee chairperson Sherise Henry said in her greeting, “Through these volunteers I have learned faith in action. Their service has represented faithful diligence, consistency and great southern etiquette.”