Throughout her thirteen years of Girl Scouting, a girl could have up to four different uniforms: her blue daisy smock, her brown Brownie vest or sash, her green Junior vest or sash, and her tan Girl Scout Cadette, Senior and Ambassador vest or sash. If she’s like me she might have had six.
Since I moved twice growing up I actually have two brownie uniforms and two Cadette, Senior and Ambassador uniforms. In my second to most recent Girl Scout troop I had a tan vest, but upon joining my current troop I was introduced to a new uniform.
You may have noticed my vintage-looking blue uniform in many of the photos on this blog and my Instagram. It’s likely that I’m the only Girl Scout you’ve seen in a while who wears blue instead of tan. This is because the blue uniforms aren’t made anymore. My troops uniforms came out in the late 1980s and we’re worn until the mid to late 90s when the modern uniforms were released. My Girl Scout leader, who was a troop leader for nearly 30 years and a Scout before that chose to keep the blue as way to distinguish if from the crowd.
Despite our vintage uniforms, we filled out sashes with badges, pins and patches from the modern day Girl Scout program. In this post, I’m going to walk you through some of the achievements and memories in the items on my sash.
Bull Hill Pin - Although I have two of these pins on my sash, I’ve actually earned four. Over my 6 years with this sash, my troop and I attended my favorite event, West Point Camporee - a weekend long camping event sponsored by the United States Military Academy. The pin was for hiking Bull Hill on our way into camp.
Connecticut State Pin - This item was not earned, but it was a collectible given to me when I got my Gold Award.
100 Years of Girl Scouting Pin - This is another collectible, given to any active Girl Scout in 2012 when the organization turned 100.
Boot Pin - Boot pins are given to Girl Scouts when the walk, hike, bike, or otherwise achieve 70 miles. I have two because I’ve done 140! These were mostly earned through the accumulation of bike trips over my time with this sash.
Cookie Pins - These little diamonds are pins earned when achieving cookie sales milestones. Honestly, I’d be lying if I told you I remembered what I did to get them, but I was never a top seller so they probably aren’t that impressive.
Service Bars - These pins are given to Girl Scouts who make a difference in their communities through service projects. The green is for the Cadette level and the yellow is for the Senior and Ambassador levels. Both of mine were earned in association with my Silver and Gold Awards.
Troop Crest - This is a patch that a troop chooses together to represent themselves. The waterfall symbolizes staying true to yourself, even when the world is always changing.
Torch Pins - The torch pins are awarded for outstanding leadership in the community. Like my service bars, each of mine were earned in association with my Silver and Gold Awards.
Bridge to Adult Girl Scout Award - This rainbow pin is the token given when an Ambassador Scout bridges out of Girl Scouts. At each ceremony, when a Scout bridges levels, she receives some variation of the rainbow:
Membership Stars - Each of these gold star pins represent a year in Girl Scouting. The color of the plate behind them coordinates with the level: blue for Daisy, green for Brownie, yellow for Junior, white for Cadette, red for Senior, and black for Ambassador.
Journey Pin - I completed one Girl Scout journey while I had this sash. It was called Mission Sisterhood. I worked on it with three other members of my troop and together, we created a program for girls entering middle school about changing friendships. (The other items around this one are more collectibles and my Ambassador bridging rainbow. Comment below if you want me to give more detail about any of those in a later post.)
Interest Project Awards (aka badges) - These various patches are earned by learning about and doing activities relating to a topic of interest. Some were done in groups, like “Car Sense” a badge earned from completing a workshop and actually working on cars. Others were done independently, like one I earned about reading books.
Gold Award Girl Scout Pin - This is the place where the WAGGGs Pin would usually go (worn on the shirt opposite the sash), but right now I have my Girl Scout Pin that was given to all 2016 Gold Award Recipients.
Gold Award - For more info on this one, see part 2 of my Gold Award Series.
Silver Award - The second highest award in Girl Scouting. Similar to Gold, it includes a self led service project. For mine, I created a book and service club at my local library. I got a group of high schoolers together to talk about books and help the librarians whenever they needed it.
The back of the sash (not shown) is where all of our patches from different events we attend and projects we complete go! I hope to go through some of these in a later post, but a lot of them are from camping events like West Point and Snowflake.