scouts and badges

So, there is an old tradition that Scouts have trading badges. Not all Scouts are interested. However, the boy is. 

We went to a joint Canadian and American Scout Camp over a year-and-a-half ago and he caught the bug.

He already had a lot badges from events and activities. However, at this Brotherhood Camp, he quickly gained a keen interest in American Council badges, one of our younger Scouters (Leader of Scout youth), was a sharp trader and helped the boy out with learning the ropes.

After a rocky start, he quickly gained quite a pile of U.S. Council badges and other assorted badges that caught his eye. Now, his main interests are Canadian Scoutree and Apple Day badges, in addition to U.S. Council badges, especially ones with prehistoric animals or reptiles. He also keeps an eye out for Star Trek, Star Wars, and Doctor Who related badges. And of course some just catch your eye and you want them.

a scoutree badge, the boy prefers the old "trees for canada" badges with the "ontario" bar

Why have I brought this up? Well, there is an organised badge trading event this Friday, a Trade-o-ree. We pulled out his badges to sort them. After the second Brotherhood Camp he attended in the U.S. six month ago, we just kind of threw them in a box because we got really busy with a bunch of other activities.

apple day, still on the lookout for old circular ones

He has a lot of badges, he also has a bunch that need to go on his "campfire blanket" basically a wool blanket cut in to a poncho. So, it was imperative to keep everything separated so we do not trade badges that cannot be replaced easily.

one of the boy's favourites, it has a woolly mammoth

It is a good thing this event has come up, because he needs to get them organised for the Canada Jamboree this summer as there will be Scouts from all over Canada and some from other countries as well. Some are very keen on trading at these Jamborees.

the boy's white whale, there is a series of these with different dinosaurs

This all falls in to my pledge to take charge of my time and my crap. It has become an exercise on how to sort and organise and keep it that way. The boy was off school today due to weather, but tomorrow I am on my own. I have at least one more box to find. It will get quite interesting, let me tell you, I already found a bunch of weird stuff today.

a small scattering of the boy's badges on the floor being sorted