Pow Wow

More than 400 scouts as well as hundreds of parents, scout masters and supporters filled Cameron High School as part of the Pony Express Council Conclave last Saturday.

With scouts coming from as far as Texas and Minnesota for the event, hundreds participated in various activities culminating with a pow wow to honor America’s indigenous people.

“It has been in Atchison, it’s been in Nebraska. It’s usually in St. Joe or Maryville. I come home a lot and it’s cool to host it, show off where I’m from and our school,” Cameron Eagle Scout John Rupert said. “… It keeps a lot of older scouts involved and seeing those older guys inspires you to want to become a mentor. It shows anybody, if they put their mind to it and they have the drive, they can get [eagle scout].”

The annual Pony Express Council Conclave takes place every year as a way to inspire fellowship despite cold weather forcing activities indoors. Throughout the day they participated in self-improvement and team-building workshops, athletic tournaments and the powwow. Rupert, who currently attends Northwest Missouri State University, said events like the conclave gave him the motivation to achieve eagle scout status and in the process he learned life-altering skills.

“It has a lot to do with the path of going eagle – leadership, time management, money management,” Rupert said. “It gives you the skills a lot of people do not have the opportunity to learn. It gives you the social aspects of it as well. Going to camp every summer, you meet new people every year … Overall, the skill base I have from boys scouts and becoming an eagle scout helped me achieve that.” 

Eugene Lickenbrock, a scout master and conclave organizer, considered the event an success, crediting the move to Cameron’s location along major corridors in I-35 and Highway 36. 

“[The turnout] could not be better. We got great weather. We were worried about coming out to Cameron because it was 25 minutes east of St. Joe, but we got a better turnout than if we would have done it in St. Joe,” Lickenbrock said. “We had 425 people come in the door and a lot of them aren’t the traditional come-grab-your-packet-and-leave. A lot of them have been here all day. It’s really exciting. When they asked me to be the chairman, my first decision was I want to go east and go to Cameron.”

Lickenbrock said Saturday’s success would not have been possible without the assistance of the Cameron School District, which he said gave them full access to the campus.

“I talked to Matt Robinson, the superintendent. He graciously, on a Saturday, took us through the school and said ‘you guys have full access to whatever you want.’ We had every room unlocked. We’ve been able to do it in both gyms. You can’t usually get a place with two gyms and that helped us a lot,” Lickenbrock said.