Why to wear it | When
to wear it | Where to get it | How to
wear it
What to put on it | Junior Badges | Patches
| Court of Awards
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Girl Scouts choose to wear uniforms at meetings or Girl Scout events to:
Each age-level has a different uniform. Uniforms are not required to become a Girl Scout, but they offer girls a space to proudly display the awards, badges, and other insignia that they work so hard to earn.
Uniforms are required at all troop meetings, ceremonies, and some field trips.
Vests (and other uniform pieces) can be purchased at the Girl Scout Council Office (1310 S. Bascom Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128) or Merry Mart Uniforms (33 Washington Street, Santa Clara, CA 95050). You can also order online at the GSUSA Website.
Junior Girl Scouts (ages 8-11) can wear uniforms with either a sash or vest to display their badges and other insignia. New styles were introduced in 2001 to include jade green pull-on style skorts, hooded sweatshirts, white short-sleeve polo shirts, and khaki cargo pocket pants and shorts.
The only required piece of the Girl Scout
uniform is a green felt tab with the Girl Scout and World Trefoil pins (shown
below).
Additional uniform elements, including the vest, US Flag patch, GSUSA patch, GSSCC patch, troop crest, and troop numbers are also standard (shown below).
There are specific locations for each of the
Girl Scout's insignia. The ones our troop will be using include:
*On the upper right portion of the vest:
Girl Scouts USA and Santa Clara County strips (Green and White),
Troop numerals (605),
Membership stars (if the Scout has any),
Bridge patch and Brownie Wings (if the Scout has any)
*Junior Badges should be placed on the front of the uniform along the bottom edge.
*The green tab with World Trefoil & Girl Scout pins should be placed over the Girl Scout's heart. This will be provided to all new Scouts by the troop.
*All event patches (i.e. Cookie participation patches) should be placed on the back of the uniform.
*More specific details on insignia locations can be found here.
Junior
Badges
Junior Girl
Scouts have several recognitions they can earn.
Junior Girl Scout Badges and Junior Girl Scout Signs are the basic awards. These are designed to expose girls to different activities and to get some real hands-on experience with each badge/sign earned.
Safety Award, Junior Aide Award, Leadership Pin, and Bronze Award are additional awards girls can earn. They take a lot of commitment from both the girls and the parents but really teach the value of contributing to our community.
Some scouts are very motivated by
badges, and if this is the case, they are encouraged to earn badges on their own
outside the troop. Girls in music, dance, art, science, or sports programs
may find they have met some of the badge requirements through that activity. If this is the case with your scout, she simply needs to tell
the troop leader what she
has done to meet the requirements. Sometimes she may need to write things
down, bring in the art work, or just be able to articulate to us what she’s
done and we’ll give her the credit. Parents
will need to pay for badges done outside the troop.
If scouts miss a meeting where badge work is done, they will need to complete
the missed activities on their own. If (and only if) it is important to your
daughter to earn the badge that “everyone else got”, she simply needs to
complete a missed requirement on her own. We will do our best to keep everyone
posted when they’re missing something in plenty of time for a Court of Awards
ceremony.
Patches commemorate an activity and normally signify participation in the event. This can be participation in cookie sales, Thinking Day, a trip to a special event (Winchester Mystery House, etc.), or camping. These patches always go on the back of the vest/sash.
Normally 2-3 Courts of Award are held each year. These are special times when our Scouts are formally recognized for their accomplishments and any other awards. These are family events and the chance for your daughter to shine. We normally have the girls plan these ceremonies themselves, which adds even more enjoyment to the evening.
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