| Southern Shores Field Service Council | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner | Boy Scouts of America | ||
| Country | United States | ||
| Founded | August 14, 2012 | ||
| Scout Executive | Melissa Stricherz | ||
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| Website http://www.michiganscouting.org/ | |||
Southern Shores Field Service Council is a field service council of the Michigan Crossroads Council.
The Scouting program in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan saw drastic drop in membership beginning in the early 2000s. The decrease in population was due to the economy in Michigan and the resulting out-migration of population, jobs and industry. The Area 2 Project was created in 2010 and studied the impact on Scouting and presented the Crossroads Recommendation, which proposed that the ten councils in Michigan merge into one large council. As a result, in 2012, four field service councils were created consisting of former councils.
The Southern Shores Field Service Council is the result of a merger between the Great Sauk Trail Council and Southwest Michigan Council.[1]
In 2020, Michigan Crossroads Council made a decision to merge their Field Service Councils to create one central Council.[2]
The council is administratively divided into districts:
Located on Wolf Lake in Jackson, MI; Camp Teetonkah claims to be the second oldest scout camp in the United States. It boasts 240 aches of land and currently caters to Cub Scout programs.
Formerly located in Texas Township south of Kalamazoo, MI; Camp Rota-Kiwan formerly occupied nearly 200 acres of land and was closed by the council in 2019 for financial reasons.
Formerly located on Bruin Lake in Gregory, MI, Camp Munhacke was closed by the council on December 31, 2019, for financial reasons.
Formerly located on Washington Lake in Cambridge, MI, Camp Kanesatake was purchased in 1926 and operated for roughly 50 years.
Formerly located in Evart, MI, Wright's Lake Scout Camp was closed by the council after the 1995 season for financial reasons.
Kishahtek Lodge, maintained the lodge number 88, and served as the Field Service Council's Order of the Arrow Lodge. The name is translated as "Northern Lights" in Lenne Lenape, and the totem is the wolverine.
The lodge was formed from merging Manitous Lodge 88 and Nacha-Mawat Lodge 373 after the Great Sauk Trail Council and Southwest Michigan Council merged into the Southern Shores Field Service Council.
Similar to the Field Service Council, the lodge is divided into chapters, which correspond within district boundaries
The Manitous Lodge was formed as a result of the merger of the Land'o'Lakes Council and the Wolverine Council, the merger forced the Allohak and Teetonkah lodges to restructure into the new lodge. The Manitous lodge totem was the medicine wheel. Manitous Lodge was the home lodge of the 1995 National Chief Josh Feigelson
The Allohak lodge was formed when the Wolverine council absorbed the Portage Trails council. The Allohak lodge totem was the Wolverine.
The Tecumseh lodge served the Wolverine council from 1946 until its merger in 1973. The lodge totem was a 4-leaf clover due to the lodge's location in the area locally known as the Irish Hills.
