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

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

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

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!

On January 9, 2010, we had our annual Winter Banquet at The First Cumberland Presbyterian Church off of the bypass.

 Like usual, it was a BLAST!!! We had around 100 in attendance and the food was fantastic.

The night started off at about 5:15 with a prayer by our new Second-Vice Chief of Fellowship, Jacob White. After the lovely meal and the 2009 Vigil Recipients, we heard from the excellent Keynote Speaker, our very own, Dr. Paul Caudill from the West Tennessee Area Council Board. 

Chapter Awards were given out as well as Individual Awards before the Founders Award was awarded to Robert Price. 

Afterwards, our now Former Lodge Chief, Owen Lewis, gave his Farewell Address. In his Address, he took a moment to thank all those who have helped him thus far. He also wished all who would come after him good luck. Overall, it was a great speech from one of our great Lodge Chiefs.

 After the 2010 Lodge Officers were sworn in, Clint Beilke, the new Lodge Chief took over the meeting. After a marvelous Incoming Lodge Chief Address, the Chapter Officers were sworn in and the Lodge Adviser gave the Adviser's minutes to wrap the wonderful night up.

Youth Adults

1) Tad Lindsey 1) Dave Grabowski

2) Taylor Johnson 2) Bill Duke

3) Clint Beilke 3) Stephen Phelps

4) Jay Chandler 4) Joe VanDyke

Though the numbers were relatively low, with a little over 30 in attendance, the training event went off without a hitch. 

The training event started at 8:30 Saturday morning, November 14, 2009, and  instantly people were having FUN while learning great leadership techniques. 

Some of the sessions included, but are not limited to the following:

*Dynamics of Leadership *Lodge and Chapter Adviser Training *Service Corps 
*OA Troop Representatives *Unit Elections *Committee Use *OA High Adventure

A great time was had by all who came out to our Lodge Leadership Development and at the end of the program, a graduation ceremony was held.

The following is a list of all of the amazing trainers and staff:

Paul Kilzer, John Taylor, Micheal White, Ed Ward, Bonnie Ward, James Ross, Rick Ribble, John Hetherington, Jim Cheatham, Bill Duke, and Jacob White.

Please be sure to thank each and everyone of them for their outstanding performance.

Also, to Travis Geisel, a congratulations for his part in the Graduation Ceremony.