Last year, Pa-Hin Lodge and Naguonabe Lodge completed a joint service project as part of the Section C-1A’s Lodge Partnership Program. For this program, lodges are asked to attend each other’s events to gain a sense of community by getting to know the members of their partner lodge. The lodge leadership also gets the opportunity to see how other lodges run their own events such as induction weekends, reunions, or fellowships. This facilitates the sharing of best practices from across the section which they can implement in their own lodges. The purpose of the program is to form bonds between lodges and help build the lodges so they have a better program for the youth of their lodge and council.
Lodges were given free range to do anything as long as they had an end goal in mind. Some lodges decided to coordinate travel to the 2018 NOAC together. The chiefs of Pa-Hin and Naguonabe decided to do a joint service project. They divided up responsibilities such as finding a project location, food planning, creating a task list and building programs for the event. The location of Fergus Falls, MN was chosen due to it being close for both lodges and was in need of service.
Both lodges wanted to do more than just a day of service, so the decision was made to create a weekend event with both fellowship and service. The event was held the weekend of October 5-7, 2018 with twenty members in attendance. With temperatures near freezing, participants were bundled up during the cheerful service on Saturday. Arrowmen built flower boxes, added new soil to areas that needed it, harvested plants and cleaned up for the winter. Before the event began, food was collected to be donated to a local food shelter. After all of the work had been completed, participants went to an outdoor movie party, accompanied by a campfire and feast for all of their hard work.
“I think this project brought two different lodges with two different skill sets closer together, and I look forward to following up with the friends I made during this event,” 2018 Pa-Hin Lodge Chief Ryan H. stated.