Who We Are
Mission & Purpose
It is the mission of the lodge to achieve the purpose of the Order of the Arrow as an integral part of Scouting America in the council though positive youth leadership under the guidance of selected capable adults.
To recognize those campers– Scouts and Scouters– who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives and by such recognition cause other campers to conduct themselves in suck manner as to warrant recognition. To develop and maintain camping traditions and spirit. To promote Scout camping, which reaches its greatest effectiveness as a part of the unit’s camping program, both year-round and in the summer camp, as directed by the camping committee of the council. To crystallize the Scout habit of helpfulness into a life purpose of leadership in cheerful service to others.
Our History
Founded in 1915 by Dr. E. Urner Goodman and Carroll A. Edson at the Treasure Island Camp of the Philadelphia Council, just seven years after British General Sir Robert Baden-Powell invented scouting in the United Kingdom, the Order of the Arrow is the uniquely American “honor society of scouting”
For over 100 years, the Order of the Arrow (OA) has recognized Scouts and Scouters who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives. This recognition provides encouragement for others to live these ideals as well. Arrowmen are known for maintaining camping traditions and spirit, promoting year-round and long term resident camping, and providing cheerful service to others. OA service, activities, adventures, and training for youth and adults are models of quality leadership development and programming that enrich and help to extend Scouting to America’s youth.
In the fall of 2012, a merger committee between Awase Lodge and Ag-Im Lodge was formed as a result of the announced merger of Bay-Lakes Council and Hiawathaland Council. The chairman of the committee was Kyle McGurk, the immediate Past Chief of Awase Lodge. The Merger committee set the rules of how the meetings would work. Their first task was to decide how the Merger would happen. The Merger committee decided that a new lodge should be formed.
On Saturday April 6th, 2013, in Marinette, WI, the Merger Lodge Executive Committee met to decide the future of the new lodge. It was soon determined that the name of the new lodge would be Kon Wapos, meaning snowshoe hare in the Menominee language, with the totem of the Snowshoe Hare.
Since the establishment of Awase Lodge, the National Order of the Arrow program has ceased to officially recognize lodge numbers, instead choosing to utilize council numbers for record keeping purposed in order to make records more uniform, thus Kon Wapos Lodge, unlike its predecessors, did not elect to adopt a lodge number.
The inaugural event, Fall Conclave, occurred on August 17th-19th at Camp Hiawatha in Munising, Michigan. At the event, the first Kon Wapos Lodge officers were elected and sworn into office: Chief, Alex Pond (Beshkno Chapter); Vice-Chief of Program, Robert Stenger (Mahng Chapter); Vice-Chief of Inductions, Preston Konop (Beshkno Chapter); Secretary, Preston Podolske (Anikwa Chapter); and Treasurer, Josh Sampson (Mahng Chapter).