EVERETT — Damascus Purnell was reticent.
The junior from Mariner High School in south Everett had been summoned to the principal’s office earlier this month and he had no idea why.
“I didn’t know if it was good or bad, but I knew I didn’t do anything,” Purnell said.
Actually, Purnell, 17, had done something. He had submitted a logo proposal to a national organization honoring the New Deal-era Civil Conservation Corps as part of a graphic arts classroom assignment.
His logo was chosen to appear next year in literature promoting national parks and the 75th anniversary of the founding of the CCC, a work-relief program from 1933 to 1942 for young men from unemployed families.
Nicknamed “The Tree Army” for its reforestation efforts in all 50 states, the CCC was established as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s campaign to fight poverty and widespread unemployment caused by the Great Depression.
Washington state alone had an average of 43 CCC work camps a year in the agency’s heyday.
More than 50,000 state residents were enrolled and more than 73,000 young men worked for the CCC in Washington. They planted trees, built parks, fought forest fires and blazed trails, among other duties.
Purnell didn’t know a great deal about the CCC until the graphic arts project, which his classroom researched. Lessons included a visit from two members of a local chapter of the National Association of Civil Conservation Corps Alumni who described the work performed nearly three-quarters of a century ago.
“I knew it was important to them,” Purnell said.
Everett resident Cherie Smith, 63, was in the principal’s office to congratulate Purnell on his winning submission. The daughter of a CCC alum had approached Mariner High School to see if a classroom would take on the project. The CCC had meant so much to her father. Before he was assigned to Camp North Bend, he was 18, unemployed and living on his own in Arlington because his family could not afford to support him.
“I’m doing this in honor of his memory,” Smith said.
Linda Matthews, a Mariner graphic arts teacher, was happy to get the invitation.
“It was pretty exciting for all of them to be part of something that is a real-world situation,” she said.
Purnell’s logo, which includes the CCC name, a tree and the words “A message of commitment and change” was chosen by a 12-member CCC historical board on the East Coast.
“It’s kind of crazy,” Purnell said of being chosen.
Joan Sharpe, president of CCC Legacy, a Virginia-based national nonprofit group, said she liked the fact that Purnell chose a leaf-bearing tree to include in his logo.
“For us who know the history, it is nice to see a deciduous tree represented,” she said. “A lot of people thought they only planted pine or fir. The truth of the matter is they planted a lot more deciduous trees.”
Berniece Phelps, 82, president of a regional chapter of CCC supporters in Western Washington, said she was impressed with Purnell’s work and is glad young people are being exposed to the history of the Conservation Corps.
Her late husband, Allan, worked for the CCC at Camp Zig Zag on the slopes of Oregon’s Mount Hood in the 1930s.
Smith, Sharp and Phelps are aware that the numbers of surviving CCC alumni are fast dwindling and they are determined to keep their memories alive.
“If we don’t teach the CCC to young people, it will soon be forgotten,” Sharp said. “We must continue to try to reach younger and younger generations. This logo program is one way to do that.”
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