Once Upon a Morning in Late August...
To an onlooker visiting Calvin’s Ecosystem Preserve on a late August morning, it might have seemed that a short walk made by four gentlemen across the bridge that connects the Bunker Interpretive Center to the entrance of the preserve was just that—a short walk. There weren’t crowds gathered or tables loaded with refreshments to indicate that it was a special occasion. It was just a walk.
Conversation was light as the men walked across the bridge.
“I think we should exercise!” said Dick Young, one of the bridge-walkers, with a chuckle.
“I called Granholm and she couldn’t make it, so I called Tony (Diekema) instead,” said Blake Forslund, referring to the walk Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm makes each year over the Mackinac Bridge.
Even with the light, casual conversation, it wasn’t just any walk the group was making. It was the first annual Forslund Bridge Walk initiated by Andy De Vries, director of major gifts, to honor the man whose quiet contribution to Calvin in the 1980s enabled the college to purchase land for preservation area.
Though the official benefactor to the college for the eco-preserve purchase is the William Angell Foundation, it was Blake Forslund who earmarked the funds specifically for Calvin. In the early 1970s, Forslund became one of the five trustees of North Manitou Island, a largely uninhabited island in Lake Michigan near the Sleeping Bear Dunes. The board of trustees made up the William Angell Foundation, an organization named after a Muskegon businessman who bought most of North Manitou Island in the 1920s to form a hunting preserve.
In the 1980s, Forslund and the other trustees sold the island property to the national park service for $13 million and dissolved the William Angell Foundation. Each board member was thus allotted one-fifth of the proceeds to give to charitable organizations.
It was a mix of timeliness and providence that brought proceeds from the sale of North Manitou to Calvin for the purchase of a 35-acre parcel of land just northeast of the main campus. As early as 1978, a faculty committee from the Calvin Center for Christian Studies conducted a study and proposed establishing a nature preserve on the property where the Ecosystem Preserve now sits. A preservation area on Calvin’s campus would allow the college to pursue its environmental stewardship goals.
According to the Ecosystem Preserve’s Web site, the study committee concluded that setting aside an area for preservation would be an “appropriate expression of stewardship of God's creation on campus.” Not only would the area serve to protect native species on the land, but it would also be an educational resource for the college and the surrounding community.
When the land composed of hardwood forest, hay fields and wetlands northeast of campus went up for sale in 1985, Forslund was in a position to channel funds from one preservation project to another. His love of the outdoors, coupled with his connection to several Calvin administrators, only made the gift designation more appropriate.
“It was such a fitting relationship,” said Forslund, reflecting on his gift to Calvin 22 years ago.
Blake Forslund’s relationship with the Calvin community began decades before he provided for the purchase of the Ecosystem Preserve in 1985. It was during his involvement in the Grand Rapids Rotary in the 1960s and 70s that he met Dr. William Spoelhof, then president of Calvin College. When Forslund needed a venue in Grand Rapids to host a national volleyball tournament with his YMCA team, he turned to Spoelhof for permission to use the newly-built Calvin Fieldhouse. And so before Calvin even had the chance to use the Fieldhouse for one of its own sports competitions, amateur volleyball teams from all over the country came and played in the building.
“I always remembered how helpful Spoelhof and Barney Steen (then men’s athletic director at Calvin) were,” said Forslund.
Seventeen years later, the tables turned and Calvin had a need that Forslund could meet.
“When Blake had this money, he remembered the kindness given to him by Spoelhof and Steen. And so what went from Calvin to the YMCA with no strings attached in 1968 came back to Calvin, no strings attached, in 1985,” said DeVries.
Forslund’s gift initiated a project that saw a half-mile of trails and two bridges built to establish the Calvin Ecosystem Preserve in 1985. From 1985–1987, several adjacent parcels of land were acquired by the college to increase the preserve area to 70 acres. Two more three-acre parcels were acquired in 1995 to complete what is the nature preserve today.
Meanwhile, Forslund, CEO of his family’s furniture company, continued to be involved in the Grand Rapids community. De Vries recounts how difficult it was to get a hold of his friend on Fridays—Forslund was too busy delivering hot meals to homebound senior citizens through the Meals on Wheels program. He was also involved in God’s Kitchen, an area charity run by Catholic Social Services. Playing volleyball for a total of 58 years, Forslund met a number of people from Calvin College, including De Vries. He also continued his relationship with former Calvin presidents William Spoelhof and Tony Diekema through his involvement with the local Rotary.
Almost two decades after Forslund gave Calvin the means to establish the Ecosystem Preserve, De Vries dreamed up a plan to commemorate the man that was a constant “bridge-builder” within the Grand Rapids community. In June of 2004, De Vries petitioned a group of Forslund’s friends and acquaintances to fund an enhancement to the Ecosystem Preserve: a bridge. The project would be necessary to prepare the Ecosystem Preserve for the opening of the Bunker Interpretive Center to the public in September of 2004.
An excerpt from the letter sent to potential donors conveys what Forslund had become to many members of the Grand Rapids community:
“Blake Forslund means a lot to many people—perhaps you became acquainted with him through Grand Rapids Rotary where he is the epitome of “service above self”; perhaps you met him while he volunteered at God’s Kitchen, serving there and delivering Meals on Wheels; or maybe he’s just a long time friend who you have come to know and love for his giving heart and his rock solid core values.”
For De Vries, the bridge fundraising project was almost too easy—twenty-six of Forslund’s friends agreed to make contributions. All of this happened unbeknownst to the man the bridge was honoring. He was kept in the dark until a Rotary function at the Prince Conference Center ended up at the new Forslund Bridge just outside the new Bunker Interpretive Center for a surprise reception.
The leisurely steps recently taken across the leaf-strewn Forlsund Bridge on a late August meeting were an understated way of again honoring the man whose gift to Calvin has meant so much to the students, staff, faculty, alumni and guests who enjoy the Ecosystem Preserve on a daily basis.
No one is more thrilled than Forslund himself that his gift has been used well.
“You just can’t find a place like this that isn’t tarred and paved. A place that’s still wild. A place where students can relax, let their hair down and commune with nature,” he said.
Thousands of Calvin students have walked over the Forslund Bridge on their way to the nature preserve’s trail system, and yet it is likely that only two know the man it honors: Forslund’s two grandchildren who attended Calvin. And yet it is only a testament to the character of this unassuming, community-minded citizen that it has remained so.
~by Allison Graff, web communications coordinator
