Endowment provides an opportunity to give back to the Order

One of the strongest ways to ensure the Order’s future is to make a gift to support it, and an Arrowman’s first opportunity to do this is through the OA’s Legacy Fellowship. The OA Legacy Fellowship is an opportunity to further support Scouting and the Order of the Arrow through a gift to the national OA endowment. Membership in the Legacy Fellowship is open to James E. West Fellows who donate an additional $1,000 to the OA endowment fund. This endowment provides funding for our OA high adventure programs, scholarships, service grants and many other special OA programs. As Legacy Fellowship membership is open only to those who have made a similar donation to their home councils through the James E. West Fellowship program, this award emphasizes an Arrowman’s responsibility to his or her local area before the national level.

Members of the Legacy Fellowship are recognized with an arrowhead pin for uniform wear on the James E. West knot and a unique certificate. Legacy Fellows are passionate about continuing and advancing the many programs the OA provides. There are about 250 Legacy Fellows and eleven have been added so far this week!.

“I was a lodge chief and section chief,” said Mark Chilutti, one of the leaders of the national OA endowment, talking about his time as a youth in the Order. “I had such a great time and my investment in the OA Legacy Fellowship hardly pays off all I got out of the program. I want Arrowmen for generations to come to experience all the Order has to offer.”

Another Legacy Fellow is Dennis Kohl, Scout executive for Patriot’s Path Council. “If I was never in the OA, I wouldn’t be a Scout Executive,” he said. “I was a lodge and area chief and was a member of the national planning conference for 1973. I received my DSA as a youth member in 1975. The OA kept me in the program and I had such a blast that I later became a district executive and now a Scout executive.”

If you cannot donate $1,000, you can still support the endowment by buying endowment patches, books, and other memorabilia at the Legacy Center in the trading post. There are many ways that Arrowmen can support the endowment today!