Occoneechee council

Occoneechee Council, Boy Scouts of America

General Information

The Occoneechee Council is the local Boy Scouts of America Council that serves some 20,000 youth and 7,000 adults in central North Carolina. The Occoneechee Council is the largest Boy Scout Council in North Carolina and serves Chatham, Cumberland, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Harnett, Lee, Moore, Orange, Vance, Wake and Warren counties. These twelve counties are divided into thirteen districts.

The Council headquarters is located in Raleigh, North Carolina in the Highwoods Office Complex. Occoneechee Council operates three year-round camping properties, available for use by the units and districts of the Council and non-Scouting groups. The Occoneechee Scout Reservation, which includes Camp Durant and Camp Reeves, is a 2,400-acre wilderness property in Moore County. Camp Campbell, a primitive camping facility is located on Kerr Lake, in Virginia.

The Council derives its name from the Occaneechi Indian Tribe, a band of the Saponi Nation, which lived through the North Carolina Piedmont and still maintains a community in Hillsbourough, a town served by the Occoneechee Council.

The twelve counties that comprise the Occoneechee Council are divided into thirteen districts. Each District is led by a volunteer District Chairman, volunteer District Commissioner and a professional District Executive, employed by the Occoneechee Council. The Districts of the Occoneechee Council are organized as follows:

Baden Powell District: Central Raleigh in Wake County
Cape Fear District: Harnett County
Crosswindds District: Northern Cary, Apex and Morrisville in Wake County
Falls District: North Raleigh in Wake County
Great Northern District: Franklin County, Granville County, Vance County, Warren County
Hemlock District: Garner, Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina in Wake County
Kia Kima District: Cumberland County
Mawat District: Durham County
Moore District: Moore County
Neuse River District: Wendell, Wake Forest, and Rolesville in Wake County
Orange District: Orange County
Three Rivers District: Lee County, Chatham County
Tuocs District: Fort Bragg in Cumberland County

Council Leadership

The Occoneechee Council is a “volunteer-driven, professionally guided” Boy Scout Council. Under this philosophy, the volunteer leadership, through the Council Executive Board of Directors and Executive Committee, work with their professional counterparts to deliver a quality Scouting programs to the youth of the Council. The Executive Board has established that “Occoneechee Council, Boy Scouts of America aims to beneficially involve every eligible child and their family in the fun and adventure of our programs. We will provide extraordinary youth development programs that: strengthen values, develop leadership skills, provide lifelong learning and instill the habit of service to others. Occoneechee Council will be widely acknowledged as a community and national leader in serving youth, families and neighborhoods. This result will be achieved through the partnership of: (1) children and families, (2) strong community organizations, (3) committed, trained volunteers, and (4) districts, board and staff able to align community resources in support of Scouting and Learning for Life.”

The Council Executive Committee of the Executive Board is composed of the following:
Council President
Council Commissioner
Council Chief Executive Officer
Vice President of Finance
Vice President of Program
Vice President of Administration
Vice President of Marketing
Vice President of Human Resources and Training
Vice President of Membership
Vice President of Operations
Council Treasurer
Immediate Past Council President
Five Members-at-Large

Finance and Financial Support

The Occoneechee Council is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. The Executive Committee of the Executive Board serves as trustees and officers of the corporation. The annual budget of the Occoneechee Council is $3.5 million. Of this, $1.25 million is raised through the annual Friends of Scouting giving campaign The Council also participates in the annual popcorn product sale, which generates $1.5 million to support Scouting programs in the Council.

The Occoneechee Council is also in the final stages of the $8.6 million “Come With Us and Build Leaders” Capital Campaign to improve the physical plant of Camp Durant and Camp Campbell. The highlight of the campaign is the fully-air conditioned Grand Lodge Dining Hall at Camp Durant, scheduled to be completed in late 2008. The Capital Campaign also included a complete renovation of each program area at Camp Durant, and the construction of the Charlie Sullivan Lodge Building, to serve as the headquarters of Order of the Arrow Occoneechee Lodge, #104. The Come With Us and Build Leaders Capital Campaign is chaired by O. Temple Sloan, Jr, the Chairman of General Parts, Inc., which owns CarQuest Auto Parts.

Camping Facilities

Camp Durant
Camp Durant is the primary summer camping facility of the Occoneechee Council. Camp Durant is a part of the Occoneechee Scout Reservation, a 2,400-acre tract in northwestern Moore County, North Carolina. The property straddles the geographic division of the Piedmont and Sandhills regions of North Carolina.

Camp Durant operates as a full-service summer camp that serves the Scouts of the Occoneechee Council during the months of June, July and August. The Council currently offers five weeks of summer camp but will expand as the attendance increases.

As a result of the “Come with Us and Build Men” Capital Campaign, the Occoneechee Council has completed a complete renovation of the camp. The hallmark of the campaign is the completion of the 700-seat Grand Lodge Dining Hall. This fully-air conditioned dining hall will seat the entire camp population at one setting, and boasts four serving lines and a full-service Trading Post and Grill below. Other facilities improvements include:
Rawls Ecology Center
Blue Cross Blue Shield Activity Field
Simmons Trailblazer Area
C. Harrison Smith Aquatics Center
Charlie Sullivan Order of the Arrow Lodge Building
Preston Health Lodge
Handicrafts Area

Camp Durant has fourteen campsites, each divided into two sides. Each campsite also has a shower house, complete with three hot/cold showers and three flushing toilets. These shower houses also allow for electric power during summer camp. The entire camp has also been wired with fiber optic cables, which allows for both wired and wireless highspeed internet connections.

More information about Camp Durant can be found by visiting the Camp Durant website. [http://www.campdurant.com]

Camp Reeves
Situated on the remainder of the Occoneechee Scout Reservation, Camp Reeves provides primitive facilities for unit and district camping. The camp has several large Jamboree-style camping fields, as well as unit campsites and several buildings. Camp Reeves was the original summer camp for the Occoneechee Council after the Moore County property was purchased.

Camp Campbell
Camp Campbell is the most primitative of the camping properties operated by the Occoneechee Council. Located on Kerr Lake, in Townsville, Virginia, just north of Henderson, North Carolina, Camp Campbell offers Scouting units access to Kerr Lake.

Occoneechee Lodge

The Occoneechee Council is the home council of Occoneechee Lodge, #104, the local branch of the Order of the Arrow, Scouting’s National Honor Society. The Occoneechee Lodge has more than 2,000 members and meets several times a year at Camp Durant for fellowship and service.