Santee Lodge - Scout Memorabilia

Anniversary Fellowship Sets

October 24, 2009

The lodge has had several fellowship “sets.” A set of fellowship patches consists of three patches, usually spring, summer, and fall. To be considered a set they must also have some common design feature to link them together. Sets are important because they require prior planning by the executive committee in order to design and approve at least three fellowship patches at once.

The first set was with the fortieth anniversary of the lodge in 1978. The series was designed by Greg Vaught and each patch was in the shape of an arrowhead. Vaught used the different parakeets on each of the patches. The spring fellowship patch has a white background and features the bird from the Ordeal flap of the day. The summer fellowship patch has a black background and has the bird of the Vigil flap. The fall fellowship patch has a blue background and has the parakeet that was found on the black embroidered flap. In this way he used the colors of the three flap system in order and used the distinctive parakeets that the lodge had used so far with its memorabilia.

This set was copied for the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the lodge in 1988 on the suggestion of Mac McLean. The set covered the three fellowships patches in that year. The background colors were kept the same although the parakeet found on the Current flap was used for all of patches in the set. The set was also associated with the anniversary arrowhead which was issued that summer as a replica of the original arrowhead.

In 1993 the lodge came out with a loose set of patches for the 55th anniversary of the lodge. The set was inspired by the service arrowhead designed by Andrew Myers and issued beginning with the spring of 1993. The O.A. Week patch for that year had a blue background and the bird from the service arrowhead. It was followed by the summer fellowship patch which had a white background and the same bird. The autumn fellowship patch of that year had a red background and completed the set. When put together the set is made up of arrowheads pointing in four different directions.

For the 60th anniversary the executive committee choose to continue the tradition of fellowship sets.  The patches were produced by the Stadri Company and are notable because of the poor quality of the patches.  The summer fellowship patch was not even fully embroidered.  The traditional colors were followed with this set.