Nachamawat

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Nachamawat is a lodge with the Order of the Arrow, honor society of the Boy Scouts of America. It works to serve scouting and communities and follows the principle of Brotherhood, Cheerfulness, and Service.

[edit] Details

Nachamawat Lodge is chartered through Penn's Woods Council and serves the scouting movement in several counties in west-central Pennsylvania. The lodge is assigned the number 275, although new scouting regulations do not involve numbers such as this, and instead use council numbers. Nachamawat has a membership of about 500 members, with about 100 active members.

As an Order of the Arrow lodge, members are elected from both member and non-member youths in Boy Scout troops.

Nachamawat primarily uses two council camps, Camp Seph Mack in Indiana, PA, and Camp Anderson in Tyrone, PA.

[edit] History

As an Order of the Arrow lodge, Nachamawat works to follow traditions of the Lenape in ceremonies, names, and other traditions.

Nachamawat is Lenape for "Three in One". This name is derived from the origin of Nachamawat Lodge, which came about by the merging of three older lodges - Wopsononock, Hopocan, and Amadahi. This merger occurred in 1970 and happened because of the merger of their individual councils.

Using this history, the lodge designed a totem of three arrows in one quiver to symbolize the merger and subsequent name.

[edit] Purpose

The purpose of Nachamawat lodge is to promote the scouting movement, local communities, the environment, or other non-profit service organizations through service provided by members.

As the organization of honor scouters, the goal is not to award scouts for accomplishments, but to collect together those willing to cheerfully serve for a greater good. Much work is done to improve scout camps through renovations, set-up, donations, and many other means. Community work include activities such as blood-mobiles.

[edit] Events

Every year Nachamawat hosts several events which its members can partake in.

The Vigil Breakfast is a meeting of Vigil members and sometimes their families. It is held early in the year, normally in January. Vigil members go to an area restaurant to enjoy breakfast while renewing friendships and having firendly discussions.

Spring Thaw is a fellowship event in March dedicated to having fun. Because it is often cold at the event, activities are talored to be indoor, with outdoor activities occurring spontaneously is good weather appears. Activities include staff making, wood burning, featherwork, beadwork, patches, Native American dance, rope making, or maybe just playing cards. Food is prepared by an amazing set of cooks, and meals in the past have included roasted pig, steak, roast beef, and even Chinese food.

Ordeals occur in May, June, and sometimes in August. These weekends serve to induct new members, and revolve around service to one of the council camps. Ceremonies occur and the food is excellent.

The Vigil Weekend is a weekend where the new Vigil candidates are inducted into Vigil membership. It is a sacred weekend above all others and is strictly limited to Vigil members and candidates.

Nachy Games is a fellowship weekend that occurs in the fall, either in September or October. This weekend is spent playing games outdoors, including football, frisbee, and Orange Golf. Orange Golf is like golf, but played with an orange. A course is established and is designed to destroy the orange with traps, difficult obstacles, and impossible holes. A main focus of the game is to cheat without it being too noticeable. Food is amazing, with meals traditionally being steak Saturday for dinner.

The annual lodge banquet was traditionally been held in the first months of the year, but has recently been moved to the end. The banquet is a time where awards are presented and an amazing feast is eaten. Guest speakers are also in attendance, and are often prominent members of scouting or past lodge leaders.

[edit] Leadership

The lodge is run by youth members in committees, led by a chief and three vice chiefs. Adult advisors assist the youth in the running of the lodge and communicating with the council.