I’m gunning for “most M & P” OP of today – how am I doing?
Okay, in Girl Scouts, the young ladies earn badges by performing X tasks associated with the badge. At what point is the badge physically handed over to be sewn onto the uniform sash (is there still a sash associated with the uniform?)? Is there a ceremony of some sort? Is it annual deal? Or more often than that?
Yup, I was a Girl Scout – 35 or 40 years ago.
My mom was a girl scout leader when I was a lad. I seem to recall that periodically there’d be this cermony where all the badges got handed out, but couldn’t tell you how often.
::hijack::
Funny Girl Scout ceremony story. Ok, only kinda funny but since it involved my pmpous ass BIL, it’s funny to me. My sister married into a jewish family. Nice catholic girl like that, right? Their first child, a daughter was a Brownie. The troop leader decided it would be cute to have the Brownies graduate to Girl Scouts in a ceremony where the “Brownies” emerge, all finished from an oven.
BIL had an issue. Being jewish, he was a bit squeamish with the whole concept of ovens. And people being therein.
Ok, it was funny when we heard it from my sister.
You can do a ceremony that involves friends and family, but that is usually reserved for things bigger than badges like bridging or silver or gold awards, etc. You can do it at a troop meeting in front of the rest of the troop, or you can hand then over in an unmarked envelope in a dark alley if you really want to. The girl has earned the badge as soon as she completes the tasks, the handing out and sewing on (yes, there are still sashes…or vests if you so choose) can happen anyway and anytime thereafter. Girl Scouts isn’t a supreme dictatorship so the troop/leader can decide.
Girls don’t fly up anymore? I remember a bridge and something about a mirror and a ritual and a bit of rhyme…
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I loved being a Scout and wanted it for my daughter–the council here was indeed very like a supreme dictatorship. Did you know that the GS don’t camp anymore? Ours were supposed to go “camp” in a heated facility, complete with electricity!
Wow-that’s roughing it. I learned the correct way to start a fire, how to pitch a tent, how to not get lost in the woods etc. It meant something.
So, we did Brownies with my daughter and dealing with the Council re the cookie sale alone was enough for me to say–no more. So, no more Scouting for daughter.
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You mean…Twist me and turn me and show me the elf, I looked in the water and saw myself?
That is going into Brownies (investiture)(its the fairy tale of the brownie) Brownies fly up to juniors, everyone else earns a bridge or just is the next level.
Bad councils suck, bad leaders suck. You can register your daughter as an independent and avoid alot of that or start a troop and do real actual camping with your troop, that is what is great about being a leader!
reference with an awards ceremony mentioned
Thanks for the info, all (and for the very, very, weird story, bus guy). I loved being a Scout also, and did it second through sixth grade. I do remember the “flying up” ceremony, and wore my wings proudly. (“Whoa, deja vu” on the “twist me and turn me…” rhyme!) I couldn’t remember anything in particular about the badges – guess that’s because my troop (led by the indomitable Mrs. Miller, whome Cackie Scott and I took great delight in freaking out – a very conventional woman, Mrs. Miller) didn’t do anything in particular.
I’m mixing the two up. I did the Brownie thing and so did my daughter, but I do remember the flying over the bridge (we had an actual bridge–og knows who made the thing!) in a gym at a local school.
No fly up for my daughter (who is now in HS). I will always regret that she didn’t have what I had, but she has gone to summer camp etc, so it’s good.
Me and my pal Johnny - our moms were co-leaders. We were 5 and went camping at Camp Pokanoka because our moms didn’t trust our dads to watch us. We had it MADE - 25-30 girls fighting over a chance to watch us.
FF years later, the bus kid is a girl scout. Goes to camp at Pokanoka. Oh man has it changed! Nice swimming pool, “dorms” to stay in, a cafeteria…That’s not camping.
After her 5 days there I asked what she did. Swam, ate meals in the cafeteria and did a couple class/group things. Not even any hiking or nature-y stuff.
Bunch of girls.
Ah-go ahead and say it: bunch of pussies.
I have camped as a Scout in 40 degree spitting rain–and slept on the ground (thank goodness for ground sheets!). I have made a fire with wet wood etc.
Camp Manistee was wonderful–and I hear the GS sold it long ago. That was platform tents, but plenty of long hikes etc. NO electricity–no curling irons, no TV.
These girls–hardship and challenge is getting the damn manicure just right.
<makes phooey noise>
Wimps. :rolleyes:
I’m a GS leader this year, for the first time.
It’s all up to the girls and the leaders. I’ve seen some leaders just hand the badges out when the girls finish the work and others will do little ceramonies a few times a year, yet others wait until the end of the year for one big party.
I don’t like the last option, the girls in my troop want to be able to show off the badges they earn ASAP.
My daughters were both in Guiding, and the older one os now a Junior Leader. One of their favourite experinces was winter camp. In tents, in January, in Canada! We raise 'em tough up here in the Great White North!
I was a GS as an older kid - fourth or fifth grade until 14 or so, what was left of our troop received the Silver Award. I joined up so late because I never had any interest until I met this one friend, who had the coolest mom ever and was also one of the troop leaders.
Man I loved camping. We did stay in a lodge once, but the other times were raised tents and A-frame treehouses. Not exactly roughing it, but when we stayed in the tents and A-frames we cooked over a fire, washed our own dishes, CLEANED LATRINES, etc. But we did make steak and a choclately cake thing for my brithday one year - but it was over a fire. Garbage eggs, home made doughnuts, etc. We did eat well…
We didn’t really do any super ‘outdoorsy’ things - mostly we just had fun and when we were older we led activites for younger girls. No hiking through the woods in the rain or anything. We usually went on weekends when there were camp-wide activity days.
And we never had badge ceremonies. We did bridging and had a big dinner for our Silver Award. We also had random parties and sleepovers since all the girls in the troop were friends (all went to same schools forever). It was a great experience. We went to Chicago from cookie money one year - saw a Cubs v Cards game in Wrigley too (from STL here), so that was awesome. After we disbanded, we still had a lot of money left over so us that were there until the end went to Puerto Vallarta (we were 15-16 at the time). It was awesome. Good times.
I only remember doing that a couple of times and that was Pathfinders. I didn’t go (I HATE the cold).
Our winter camps were usually inside, at least we slept indoors. We spent a good portion out of doors going snowshoeing and playing games.
A few years ago when I was a leader, we would pass out the badges on a specified night. We’d get into horseshoe and call out the girls, giving them their badges which was much the same as when I was in Guides.
GS aren’t wimps in Missouri.
When I was a lass, my troop went camping. Platform tents, and all, just as you describe. This summer, Paidhi Girl went to the same camp for a week this summer. Aside from the fact that they’d built a new dining hall, it was all pretty much the same.
So your local council may deserve the rolleyes, but not all GS. Cause all GS camping hasn’t wimped out, and at least some Girl Scouts still camp.
Glad to hear it! And so the South Cook County GS Council sucks.
and a curse on them for selling Camp Manistee–in a climax forest, no less.
:mad:
I’ve got fond memories of Girl Scouts, too, although my father may not. You see, on a Father/Daughter camp out, in my puppy-like enthusiasm, I volunteered us to clean the latrines! :eek: I honestly didn’t know what a latrine was, but I found out. While we didn’t put up tents, we did camp in A-frame shelters, and I remember freaking out some of the other girls when I found a tiny little black snake on a hike and wanted to take him home with me. I learned to knit in Girl Scouts and build a fire, and once got to ride a horse bareback. I had a blast, and I still have a photo of me, my best friend, and a third girl at a candle-lighting ceremony.
This was all a long time ago, but badges were handed out at ceremonies and sewn to a sash. I’ve forgotten the details, though. One thing you might want to consider is handing out badges with some ceremony as they’re earned at weekly or monthly meetings, then holding a large ceremony at the end of the year where people are told all the badges a girl earned.
CJ