Range of Guide Badges

There is an enormous range of guide badges that you can choose from, ranging from the Active Response badge right through to World Issues. Some of the guide badges are designed to help orientate people. For example, some badges contain information about which local guiding group the girls belong to and which patrol they're in. In terms of the award badges, most are activity based and are offered as a reward for achieving a certain level in that activity. Once awards have been earned, they can be sewn onto the uniform and worn with pride.

And of course, decades later, they can become very desirable collectors' items. Some of the most collectable guide badges can bring quite a lot of money and vintage badges in mint condition are often of most interest to collectors. Many of the older badges are presented in two or three colours, for example a black background with embroidered accents in white and green. The old Traveller badge is a good example of this, showing a green and white steamer sailing on a white sea, set against a black background.

These days, guide badges are much more colourful and beautifully designed to provide a clear representation of how they've been earned. For example, the Chocolate badge shows the guide insignia above a gift-wrapped box of chocolates tied with a lovely bow. Unsurprisingly, this is a very popular badge as it requires learning about chocolate as well as organising a tasting session.The Faith award is one of the more interesting awards to work for and this is a lovely badge which is a square white panel inset with the guide insignia and beneath it, symbols which represent some of the major world faiths, for example the Star of David and the cross.

One of the more challenging awards to work towards must surely be the Camp Permit. This requires a lot of planning and actual camping before it is awarded. This badge of honour shows a forest green background with a tent, pine tree and campfire in the foreground.Some guide badges are awarded for special work. For example, the Community Action award requires a community based project to be designed and carried out. This special badge shows a representation of blue guides against a golden flash.

The Commonwealth Award is available only to older guides and anyone in the Commonwealth can earn it. This is a tough badge to earn and involves knowing a lot about history, the Commonwealth and carrying out some community action. It's one of the special challenge awards that people are very keen to get. Its deep blue background is set off with a golden guide insignia and the words, Commonwealth Award, in gold lettering.The highest accolade a guide can earn is the Baden-Powell Challenge Award and so it is naturally one of the most sought after guide badges. The reward for this demanding challenge is a smart blue badge showing a golden guide insignia with Baden-Powell Challenge in elegant gold lettering.

John Handson is sales manager of one of the name badges manufacturers,he writes many articles about badges.