Founder's Award
The Founder’s Award is reserved for Arrowmen who demonstrate to fellow Arrowmen that they memorialize in their everyday life the spirit of achievement as described by founder E. Urner Goodman and cofounder Carroll A. Edson. Introduced at the 1981 National Order of the Arrow Conference, the Founder's Award was created to honor and recognize those Arrowmen who have given outstanding service to their lodge. A list of all Colonneh Lodge Founder's Award recipients is available here. Nominations for the Founder's Award are due in November.
Nomination Form
James E. West
Each year, Colonneh Lodge presents the James E. West Fellowship to several individuals by making of $1,000 given in their name to the Sam Houston Area Council’s Endowment Fund to support Scouting for future generations. To date, Colonneh Lodge has donated over $30,000 to the Council Endowment fund. A list of all James E. West awards presented by Colonneh Lodge is available here. Nominations are due in November.
Nomination Form
Numbered Certificate
The Colonneh Lodge Numbered certificate is presented to outstanding youth or adults who have performed above and beyond the call of duty in service to Scouting, the community and the lodge. The recognition is a matted and framed numbered certificate and was created in late 1967 by Dabney Kennedy to recognize outstanding leadership in service and the spirit of achievement beyond the Vigil Honor. In 1980, the national director of the OA visited the Colonneh Lodge Pow Wow and was impressed with the type of awards that we presented to recognize our Arrowmen for service above and beyond. He was specifically interested in the numbered certificate program. This interest sparked the creation of the national Founder's Award with Colonneh Lodge's assistance in the development through the efforts of national committee member - Dabney Kennedy. A list of all Colonneh Numbered Certificate recipients is available here. Nominations for the Numbered Certificate are due in November.
Nomination Form
Ralph Rivera Memorial Award
This award was established in honor of Ralph Rivera, a fallen Vigil Honor member and an adopted son of a Pawnee Family. Ralph spent his teenage years as a member of Post 486 in the old Central District, and as an adult, served as Scoutmaster for Troop 583 in the Denver Harbor Area providing a Scouting program in his neighborhood.
Ralph was also very involved with his district, serving in many different callings. As a member of Colonneh Lodge, he promoted the Native American Way to all that were interested. His knowledge of Indian songs, dance styles and regalia made him a valuable resource to our lodge. Many of our dance teams, ceremony teams and individual dancers benefited from his knowledge of these things. His teachings are still handed down to Colonneh Lodge members today.
The award is presented annually at the OA banquet to the chapter that best exemplifies the Native American spirit in drumming, singing, dance, ceremonies and service to our community, council and lodge.
Chapter of the Year
The Virgil L. Smith Chapter of the Year award is presented annually at the OA banquet to a chapter that continues to go above and beyond the expectations for a chapter in Colonneh Lodge, and sets the benchmark for chapter operations and delivering the program to their area of service. Applications will be available soon.
Journey To Excellence
The Journey To Excellence is a recognition program adopted by BSA and the Order of the Arrow as a way to measure performance. Each chapter has the opportunity to achieve one of three different levels of recognition: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Points are received in five categories: finance, membership, program, council service, and leadership and governance. Membership impact and brotherhood conversion are both required items to qualify for Journey to Excellence.
Unit Award of Excellence
The Order of the Arrow Unit of Excellence Award seeks to identify those units, and the leaders within them, who excel at incorporating the OA into their annual planning. This award is intended to provide a tool for lodges to recognize, incentivize, and operationalize unit-level participation in Order of the Arrow programs.
The OA Unit of Excellence Award criteria recognize units that invite the lodge to conduct quality unit elections, participate in lodge events and meetings, and operate a complete OA unit representative program. The hope is that units that complete these criteria will benefit from the support programs that the Order of the Arrow has implemented to strengthen unit-delivered program. This recognition program, along with other tools for unit support, should be distributed and promoted to Scoutmaster/Coach, OA unit representatives and advisers, and chapter election teams to include in communication to units.
Requirements for the Order of the Arrow Unit of Excellence Award.