The James E. West Fellowship Award is a national Boy Scouts of America recognition for individuals who make a significant contribution to their local council endowment trust fund. Organizations or individuals may contribute an award in honor of someone -- an Eagle Scout, a Silver Beaver recipient, council president, or district chairman, or in memory of a departed loved one, business associate, or special person.

The James E. West Fellowship Award includes an attractive certificate; a distinctive lapel pin/charm and an embroidered square knot for uniform wear. While it is a national recognition, the James E. West Fellowship award is authorized and presented by the local council. The recipient does not have to be a registered scouter. Appropriate national recognition is given at a special reception held in conjunction with the National Annual Meeting of the Boy Scouts of America.

The award was established in 1993. Since then there have been 12,657 Fellowships awarded nationwide. As of June, 2000, there have been 22 recipients of the James E. West Fellowship Award in the Arbuckle Area Council, which serves approximately 2,900 youth in southeastern Oklahoma.

The award is named after the first Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America who exemplified Ralph Waldo Emerson's observation that "an institution is the lengthened shadow of one man." Scouting today is the "lengthened shadow" of more than three decades of the farseeing and dedicated leadership of Dr. James E. West. Those who are recognized by the James E. West Fellowship Award will cast their own "lengthened shadow" as they help ensure the Scouting legacy for future generations of young people and create the financial stability of the program in the future century for their local councils.