Author: David Thuis

Beginning in 1910, the founders of the Boy Scouts of America set out to create a program to enrich the lives of young people. It was no easy task, but their efforts paid off—big time.

Each year since, thousands of Scouts and Scouters have followed in the founders’ footsteps by creating a new Scouting unit. The BSA wants to recognize the efforts of a unit’s founding members with a special piece of insignia—just in time for the program’s 100th Anniversary.

The Founder’s Bar, shown above, is worn by all youth and adults whose names are on a new-unit charter or who officially join the new unit before the unit recharters for the first time. Members of veteran units still in operation who were on the original charter may also wear the Founder’s Bar with that unit’s numerals.

You don’t wear the bar until your original charter is up. After you recharter for the first time, all youth and adults who were on the new-unit charter can sew the Founder’s Bar on the left sleeve below the unit numerals.

Do you qualify? Contact your local Scout shop for information on how to purchase the materials shown above.

Wear the patch with pride and the knowledge that your work in forming and sustaining a Scouting unit has added to the program’s impressive history.