Ittawamba Leaves

Every year at Winter Banquet, awards are given out to some amazing arrowmen as well as Chapters that exemplify what it means to be a part of our Order. Here are the award recipients for 2011.

Founder's Award Recipients

Leonard VanDyke (A)

Clint Beilke (Y)

Individual Awards

Excellence in Ceremonies- Jake SnyderExceptional Service to the Lodge (Youth)- Seth Underhill Exceptional Service to the Lodge (Adult)- Mike IrickUnsung Arrowmen- Dylan West Chapter Awards

Outstanding Service to Scouting-  Shiloh Chapter

Highest Brotherhood Conversion- Okeena Chapter

Most Improved Chapter- Gunaxin Chapter

Outstanding Service to the Lodge- Iron Horse Chapter

Vigil Honor Members

Nick Varnick (Y)

Doulgas Burgess (Y)

Jacob White (Y)

Ryan Burlesci (Y)

John Varnick (A)

Doug Burgess (A)

Mike Snyder (A)

Ferron Thompson (A)

Left to Right: Ferron Thompson, Nick Varnick, Ryan Burlesci, Jacob White, Douglas and Doug Burgess, John Varnick, Mike Snyder

2012 Lodge Officers Sworn In

At the 2012 Winter Banquet, which was held at Northside United Methodist Church in Jackson, TN, on January 7, the 2011 Lodge Chief gave an inspirational, though delayed, Lodge Chief farewell address where he spoke about the many successes of Ittawamba Lodge #235 in the 2011 year and gave a heartfelt thanks to those who made the year a success as well as those who helped him during his tenure as Lodge Chief.

Also at Winter Banquet we had as the guest speaker, Dwayne Fontennette, the 2011 Southern Region Chief who gave an amazing speech about the importance of setting your goals high and striving to achieve them for the right reasons.

In 2012 Ittawamba Lodge Chief Nick Varnick's Incoming Lodge Chief address, he explained how the new system called "Journey to Excellence" will work in our Lodge as well as it's correlation with the Unit, District, and Council level "Journey to Excellence".

He also spoke about how honored he is to be serving Ittawamba Lodge as Chief for 2012 and his vision for the Lodge

There are a lot of people who came together to make the Winter Banquet one of the best of it's time. Some of those people include, but are not limited to: Dwayne Fontenette (Guest Speaker); Daniel Proffitt (Vigil Ceremony, Table Decorations); Adam Pace (Sound System, Vigil Night); Joe Craven (Vigil Night, Awards, Script); Jim Cheatham (Vigil Night, Awards, Script, Special Presentations); Shane Lynch and Jeremy Fair (Trading Post, Silent Auction); Ryan Burlesci and Douglas Burgess (Registration); Northside United Methodist (Facility); Northside Market and Catering (Caterer); and so many more! 

With gas prices on the rise and travel expenses going up each week, it would be almost unbearable for our lodge members to attend the 2012 National Order of the Arrow Conference at Michigan State University- However, our lodge has come up with a solution for YOU.

As most of you know, the lodge flap is a huge fund raiser for our lodge and helps us pay for many of our events. This year we have dedicated a special limited edition of 150fundraiser flaps to help offset the transportation costs for NOAC 2012. Our preliminary plans are to split the bus cost with another local lodge, similar to the 2009 NOAC. For just $20, you can have this new and limited flap. Some of you reading this may think that $20 is a little pricey, but this is truly a winner for everybody! If you purchase this limited flap, you will be one of the few members to have a “truly complete” collection of the 2011 Ittawamba Lodge Flaps; while you are also helping the NOAC contingent grow since more members can attend if the costs are lower.

So make sure you come get this Limited Edition Lodge Flap at the Lodges’ next function; because if you wait, they will be gone!

YOUR HELP NEEDED!!!

Today is the day!

Please read the email below sent from Rick Ribble, Camp and Property Management Chair, regarding the storm damage at Camp Mack Morris. You can see the pictures at the bottom of this Entry.

Prior to last night, the camp has been damaged by storms that has plagued West TN for several weeks; rain and then high winds. In fact, the camp ranger is still cutting trees downed from those storms several weeks ago as he also has been preparing for ordeals and start of summer camp next week as the staff arrives.

That was before we had tents up in each camp site. The ranger and I talked again this morning and he followed that with some pictures (see attached) that tell of additional damage and this time to tents, more trees, and some platform damage again!!

I am writing to ask if you could possible spend some time on Saturday to help with making platform repairs as needed, replace damaged tents with those from stock, and re-setup many tents across the camp which are down due to the high winds again last night.

Robbie has worked all day to cut the newly downed trees into log lengths and fire wood lengths in campsites. Help is also needed to stack this fire wood in each campsite and to move the brush as needed into the woods around each campsite.

The staff will arrive on Sunday to begin Staff Week and camper arrive the week after that. With the water front finally at summer pool after the flooding the Ranger needs to focus on dock repair and setting out program area supplies in order that staff can setup each of these areas prior to start of camp.

If you can help, please respond back so I know how many can come. Of course, youth can help with the stacking and can assist to setup the tents again that are down.

I do understand this is a holiday weekend but this is our camp and I know each of you want it to be great when your troop arrives. Please consider donating some time this Saturday to help.

I plan to be at camp tomorrow and Saturday. If we can get 15 - 20 people on Saturday we can move a long way to fixing these issues and take a huge load off the ranger this close to that start of camp.

In Service To Scouting,

Rick- Antelopese494@aol.com

To see what happened at the last LEC Meeting, check out the link below!

http://www.ittawamba.org/LEC%20Meeting/LECMinutes4-30.pdf

Spring 2011

Congratulations on your induction into the Order of the Arrow. You should be proud of your accomplishments

as a newly inducted member. The Order of the Arrow recognizes Scouts and Scouters for their commitment to

living by the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives. To help you as you begin your journey in the Order, we

invite you to visit www.jumpstart.oa-bsa.org. Jumpstart is an interactive website that helps introduce the Order

of the Arrow to new members.

After you check out Jumpstart, we encourage you to head over to event.oa-bsa.org to look at our exciting summer

event opportunities. This summer, the Order of the Arrow is hosting two national events: Indian Summer and

SummitCorps—The New River Experience.

Indian Summer is an action-packed conference based on American Indian culture and Order of the Arrow

Ceremonies and Inductions. Arrowmen will be able to learn about the areas of dance, costuming, ceremonies,

drumming, and singing by engaging with experts in American Indian culture. This weeklong conference will be

held at the Ridgecrest Conference Center in Asheville, North Carolina from August 1-6, 2011.

In 2008, the Order of the Arrow partnered with the United States Forest Service in providing cheerful service to

five national forests. With more than 3,500 Arrowmen, the Order was able to provide more than 200,000 volunteer

hours to our nation’s treasured resources. This summer, the Order will build off ArrowCorps5 to host its second

national service project. SummitCorps—The New River Experience will provide service to the National Park

Service’s New River Gorge National River. Located in West Virginia, Arrowmen will work to develop and build

multi-purpose trails and remove invasive species from the national park. Lodges will be sending contingents for

one of four one-week-long sessions: July 3-9, July 10-16, July 17-23, and July 24-30. Each session will include

fellowship opportunities, gatherings, a full day of recreation, and memories to last a lifetime.

To learn more about the 2011 national events, visit www.event.oa-bsa.org and contact your lodge leadership to

register for your spot at Indian Summer and/or SummitCorps—The New River Experience.

Congratulations on your induction into the Order of the Arrow. Remember, those who chose you, need you.

Yours in Service,

Jonathan Hillis                  Daniel Dick
National Chief                   National Vice Chief

Order of the Arrow, Boy Scouts of America | online at www.oa-bsa.org

 Check it out at http://www.oa-bsa.org/programs/ttr/ or click here.

-Taken from the Nationanl Website. www.oa-bsa.org. 

Just this past weekend at Fall Fellowship, October 2, 2010, out of five Lodge Officer positions, four of them reign from Iron Horse Chapter.

Lodge Chief: Clint Beilke (Iron Horse Member)

First-VIce: Will Brantley (Iron Horse Member)

Second-Vice: Nick Varnick (Iron Horse Member)

Secretary: Ryan Burlesci

Treasurer: Travis Geisel (Iron Horse Member)

This year, Ordeals were better than ever! Lodge officers had worked very hard to get together a fantastic program that really showed the new Ordeal members what the Order of the Arrow is all about! After all the irksome tasks were done, and all ceremonies were completed, the real fun began with our OA Fun Night on Saturday evening. This was an opportunity for those who are new to the OA to see everything our lodge and Order has to offer from; OA High Adventure to American Indian dancing, and even patch trading! The dining hall at Camp Mack Morris was jam packed full of booths from each chapter, ceremonies teams, Ittawamba Lodge's very own dance team at the Pow wow and much more. Sunday morning we had a BRAND NEW training planned for new Arrowmen. This was to teach each new Ordeal member in our lodge all the ways they can personally get involved with the Order of the Arrow and all it has to offer them. All of the new Ordeal members who missed out on it, missed out on a vital part of their experience! As you can see, we worked on a multitude of things to better our new members' first experience with the OA.

In the past, many new Ordeal members have left as soon as they ate their infamous steak dinner, and those who stayed were probably not impressed with the same old boring Saturday evening and straight forward training on Sunday. Lodge officers have all seen a higher vision: a fun and informative end to a very tiresome weekend. It is important that each one of you sees the same vision, because we need all the help we can get to put on a fantastic Ordeal! Always remember that all it takes is the power of ONE to influence a new member in Ittawamba Lodge. And who knows, that new member could possibly be the next chapter chief, event chairman, or even a future National Chief! And we need your help to put on a great Ordeal and spark the fire in these new members, because they are not just new members to our lodge. They are the future of the Order of the Arrow!

Attention all Arrowmen!! The Lodge Executive Council meeting, or LEC, meeting is coming up on April 11 at 2pm at the Scout shop in Jackson!  This meeting is mandatory for all lodge and chapter officers and advisors, but all members of our lodge are welcome to come and see how this meeting works and share your input.  The main items up for discussion are Conclave and Ordeals.  So please come check out the LEC meeting coming up very soon and get involved in your lodge today!  All it takes is ONE comment or idea to change how things work, and you could be that ONE arrowman with new ideas!

 In WWW,

Jacob White

2nd Vice Chief of Fellowship