Patches, Badges and the Old Camp Logo

By Pati Egan

Patches, Badges, bars, and the old Camp logo. Staff and C.I.T.s (Counselors-in-Training) don’t wear these patches on their uniform shirts anymore. A staff picture from 1988 shows the girls’ and most of the boys’ staff with the dark blue or light blue patches. Beyond the early 1990s the patches were not used. The patches were worn on the sleeve. In the beginning female staff wore them on the front of the shirt. The red and green patches were for C.I.T.s (red) and if they passed the test at the end of the first week, they were C.C.I.T.s (Certified Counselors-in-Training) the second week and received a green patch.

The badge in the middle is a much sought-after Ranger Badge! Most likely the Ranger Badge was replaced in the late 1980s. They are not seen on the 1990 staff picture. Staff that achieve that rank now are awarded a chevron. The usual staff progression was Senior C.I.T.; female Senior C.I.T.s wore light blue polo shirts with the light blue patch. Male Senior CITs wore light blue shirts and the Senior CIT patch. Deputy Rangers wore the regular royal blue patch. Males wore light blue shirts and females wore white shirts. Rangers got a Ranger Badge. Males wore tan pants and shirts. Females wore, after 1979, tan pants and white polos. All patches had to be sewn on. The next rank was Lieutenant, until the mid-1980s, except for one or two exceptions the highest rank was Captain. Gene Canavan and Pat Marlin were the only two Majors.

All Camp vehicles were red or red and white and had the red logo on the door. The red logo was the official Camp logo.

In the Beginning, Girl’s staff wore the blue cloth emblem on the front of the uniform shirt. The C.C.I.T.s are in jeans and would have had green patches.

The Boys’ staff always wore the Camp patch on their left sleeve – including these C.C.I.T.s.

By 1974 the girls’ staff moved their patches to the left sleeve.

So, let’s see if we have this straight:

The C.I.T. red patch was probably used until around 1971 with various colors of shirts.

C.C.I.T. green patch was probably only used until around 1970 on a white shirt.

During the 1980s, we would allow exceptional C.C.I.T.s to stay the rest of the summer. They wore light blue polos with a C.I.T. patch. The girls went to polo shirts around 1979. The Senior C.I.T. program was started in 1971, and both boys and girls wore light blue shirts and the light blue Senior C.I.T. patch.

Deputy Ranger and above wore the blue patch – boys wore a light blue shirt until they got promoted to the Ranger tan. Girls wore the same white shirt as Rangers and above.

The iconic and highly sought after Ranger Badge

The badges themselves had no authority, but they did look awesome on your shirt. Most staff bought them at the end of the summer from Camp. They were not cheap but they are priceless to those who kept their badge.

Uniforms

Boys wore tan or khaki uniforms with the badge. In 1979 the Girls staff finally got out of the dark blue shorts and wore khaki shorts or long pants with white shirts. I was Program Director and am still proud of this accomplishment. I felt the blue shorts looked a little too school uniform.

Citations

Staff could also earn citations. Every Friday, during dinner, the Campers voted for one Unit Leader and two General Staff. The ballots were counted, and the citations were given to one Unit Leader and two General Staff.

The Campers Choice ballot – this award was started in 1973. Every ballot was recorded on a master list. Claire Hatch and Steve Appel were frequent Unit Leader winners. Steve Bushong won quite a few times during Boys Camp and Michele DiBrito was a frequent winner during Girls Camp.

The other two awards were Department Citations and Administrative Citations. They were awarded to staff who did an exceptional job. Usually these went to Activity Directors. I think these two awards are still given out.

These citations were cumulative and staff could earn Frontier Trips or overseas trips. Of all of the awards given out, the Ranger badges are the most valuable and sought after. Supposedly there are two gold plated badges somewhere – I don’t know who has them but I think the badges were gold plated by the owners.

If you happen to talk to any “old staff” I assure you they can tell you when they got promoted and how important it was to them. The staff now are just as enthusiastic about getting a promotion as we were. They proudly wear them on the uniform shirt – just like the people in 1959.

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