Santee Lodge - Scout Memorabilia

Fellowship Sets and Stories

October 24, 2009

There are a couple of interesting traditions which grew out of the design of fellowship patches. The first is called the “teardrop” set of patches. Beginning with the 1974 Fall Fellowship and with every six years after that the design of the patch was in a small diamond resembling a teardrop. Traditions are a strange thing. John Outlaw liked the design of the 1974 “teardrop” so he designed another for the 1980 Fall Fellowship, six years following the first one. The tradition continued in 1986 and then again in 1992.

There are two patches which say “1980 Spring”. The one which has a diamond shape and a flag in the background is the 1980 Spring Fellowship patch designed by Ray Drew. The round patch with a blue background is actually the 1981 Spring Fellowship patch. When the lodge executive committee was deciding on designs for the 1981 Spring patch Duncan Hart submitted his old design that had 1980 on it. The committee passed the design but the patch company failed to change the date on the design to designate it as the 1981 Spring Fellowship patch.

Another unique tradition began with the fellowship held in the fall of 1983. In conjunction with a beautiful autumn colored patch design by Greg Vaughn, the name of the fellowship for that year was changed to the autumn fellowship. Ten years later the lodge held another autumn fellowship in 1993.  This patch is also a part of the 55th anniversary set.

A real unique set that the lodge had with its fellowship patches started in the summer of 1989. The set also included the Fall 1989 and Spring 1990 patches. Each of the patches was in the shape of a parakeet perching on an imaginary arrow. When put together the first and last patch in the series are birds facing in towards the center Fall 1989 patch which is a parakeet with outstretched wings. The set was designed by Paul Gowder and Chip Payne.

The year 2000 saw a completely different twist on the idea of a lodge fellowship set.  Acting adviser David Lee choose to use the same patch design for four different events.  According to members of the executive committee the Work Day patch (a first ever for Santee Lodge) had a blood red background in honor of the Death Flap that came out after the lodge was shut down.

A modern classic is the 2003 “Night Vision” set designed by Jay Carlson.  Each of the three fellowship patches are chevron segments that fit underneath the 65^th Anniversary flap.  The next year Nick Newton and Kyle Hughes changed things up with a winter banquet patch to launch a new cartoon character set.  This four patch set featured a cartoon parakeet in different designs.  The idea of a winter banquet has stuck and there has been one issued every year since.

The lodge has two other events which deserve attention. On years that the lodge has hosted the Dixie Fellowship there has usually been a Dixie Set-up Fellowship in mid April to set up camp for the event. This event is considered a fellowship because it lasts an entire weekend and lodge flaps are sold. Dixie Set-up patches were issued in 1983 and in 1991. The 1983 patch is a smaller version of the Dixie patch of that year. The 1991 patch is in the shape of a flowing Confederate battle flag with a parakeet on it.

There is a unique fellowship that although not issued by Santee is a part of any complete Santee collection.  In 1983 following There is a unique fellowship that although not issued by Santee is a part of any complete Santee collection.  In 1983 following the break-up of old Section SE-3B Itibapishe Iti Hollo Lodge 188 invited Santee brothers to a joint fellowship.  However, only a half dozen Santee arrowmen made the trip to Camp John J. Barnhardt.  The patch for that weekend is a unique blend of the two lodges totems.  Although it was issued by Itibap it is very sought after by 116 collectors.