See you soon...and, Thank You!

Greetings, Fellow Wearers of the Arrow!

I hope this finds all of you well and readying yourselves for a great summer that is just around the corner. Our annual Pre-Camp Fellowship is fast approaching: May 16-18 at Rainey Mountain. We look forward to sharing fellowship with you and our Ordeal Candidates.

As I began thinking about Pre-Camp and the importance of an Ordeal and service weekend, I have been reminded that the annual National Volunteer Week 2025 is also being celebrated this week here in the United States of America. Canada celebrates this next week. And many other countries celebrate volunteers and their service on other weeks in April and May. In our country, this celebration of volunteering and volunteers began by presidential proclamation in 1974 and 2025 is the completion of a half-century of this officially proclaimed recognition.

Yes, Scouting and the importance of volunteering came immediately to mind. Creating Scouting in its many forms and programs requires the efforts of many professionals and volunteers. Our founder, Lord Baden-Powell, shared that Scouting is a game with a purpose. That central tenet guides the work of all those that create the game for the youth we all serve. I do not believe that any professional Scouter would disagree that if it were not for volunteers, the game would not exist and, therefore, youth would not be served.

One of the central tenets and core values of the Order of the Arrow is the concept of and training in the idea of Servant Leadership. To volunteer, to commit one’s time and resources, to follow the program and create character-training environments is something that is difficult to quantify. The Ordeal program focuses on this idea: that to commit one’s time and resources to making other’s reality possible without recognition of that commitment is a higher value that we celebrate and promote. We try to pass along the idea of giving service not for one weekend, rather to commit to a life of service to others. In the right hands with the right intent, leadership is one way to provide that service no matter that at times it can be burdensome and difficult.

I hope that when you next see a Scout or Scouter that provides or has provided for you their time and resources to create the best Scouting program possible you can say thank you. For all of you and for all the Scouters in Mowogo Lodge and the Northeast Georgia Council serving in all positions and fulfilling all the roles necessary to create Scouting, thank you. In many ways, the return on your investment of time and resources is not always seen and difficult to measure. But have no doubt, you make impacts that reverberate through small...sometimes almost indistinguishable...gestures of those you have inspired because you have learned to and taught others to be prepared, to do a good turn daily, and to be unselfish in service and devotion to the welfare of others.

Founder of the Order of the Arrow, Dr. E. Under Goodman, shared that our program is a “thing of the spirit rather than mechanics (of organization, operational procedures…).” Please keep this in your thoughts as we approach our Pre-Camp Fellowship. And thank you all for creating Scouting and, following our shared values, creating people that treat others with respect, ease daily burdens, and make our world a little bit better each day…one good turn at a time.

Happy National Volunteering Week 2025! See you at our Pre-Camp Fellowship in a few weeks.

Yours in Brotherhood,

Rusty Royston
Lodge Adviser, Mowogo Lodge
Northeast Georgia Council, BSA