What are you going to do for my son?" This was the plea of an anguished newly-single parent about her suicidal 12-year old son. Fortunately, she asked someone who cared.



Michael C. Henkel started working at the Westmoreland County Juvenile Detention Center in 1978 and a year later he accepted a teaching position there. In 1982, he began serving as an Associate Pastor at a local church and held both positions for the next ten years. Mike met the woman mentioned above at the altar one Sunday morning and made a commitment to help. However, the little guy proved to be a handful. When Mike got together with the mother to discuss progress a month later, he told her "You don't have to worry about your son committing suicide. I'm going to kill him."



Six months later the boy was still alive, Mike's hairline was receding and a threesome was formed - another young fellow didn't have a dad, either. When the threesome became a foursome and then a fivesome, help and training was sought from Youth Guidance, Inc. where Mike met Paul Harbison, Outdoor Recreation Specialist for the Coalition for Christian Outreach. In 1984 they went on their first real wilderness trip, twelve days of backpacking and rock climbing in West Virginia. It rained for eleven days straight. The kids learned to appreciate hot food, home and dry clothes. Mike loved it.



By 1985, Mike was volunteering personal time and money to lead wilderness trips for teenage boys from single parent families. He recruited Gene Giernacky from the youth ministry of his church to help. Meanwhile, he began to accept informal referrals from the juvenile probation office in Westmoreland County. Funds were supplied by Youth Guidance and the church until budget cuts occurred in 1986. Soon after, Chief Juvenile Probation Officer Larry Mason approached Mike about some young fellows he wanted to send on a wilderness trip. Informed about the lack of funds, the resourceful Mason recommended a contractual agreement with Westmoreland County for the purchase of services. A license had to be obtained from the Department of Public Welfare. Easier said than done, but they had come too far to turn back now