Req 6 — Build a Memorabilia Collection

This requirement asks you to gather items from your own Scouting experience — and optionally from family or friends — and tell the story behind them. It is a hands-on way to connect your personal history to the broader Scouting heritage you have been studying.

What Counts as Memorabilia?

Almost anything connected to Scouting can be part of your collection.

Patches and Insignia

• Merit badge patches — especially your first earned badge or your favorite
• Council shoulder patches (CSPs) — yours and any from other councils you have visited
• Jamboree, camporee, and event patches
• Order of the Arrow flaps and activity patches
• Rank badges and progress toward Eagle
• Temporary patches from camp, high adventure, or special events

Other Scouting Items

• Neckerchiefs and slides
• Camp t-shirts
• Handbooks — especially older editions from family members
• Photos from campouts, service projects, courts of honor, or camp
• Pinewood Derby cars
• Camping gear with a story behind it (your first mess kit, a compass handed down from a grandparent)
• Certificates, award cards, and letters
• Troop flags, patrol flags, or totems

Borrowed Items

With permission, you can include items from family members or friends who were in Scouting. Older items are especially interesting because they show how Scouting has changed over the decades. If you cannot borrow an item in person, photographs are perfectly acceptable.

Organizing Your Collection

There is no required format, but organizing your items will make your presentation stronger:

• Group items by theme — patches together, photos together, keepsakes together
• Arrange items chronologically — from your earliest Scouting memory to the present, or from the oldest borrowed item to the newest
• Label items — a note card explaining what each item is, when it is from, and why it matters to you adds depth and shows preparation

What to Share with Your Counselor

When you present your collection, be ready to talk about:

1. What each item is and when it is from
2. The story behind it — where you got it, what you were doing when you earned or received it
3. What you learned — about the item itself, about Scouting history, or about the person it once belonged to
4. Connections to earlier requirements — Does an item connect to a person from Requirement 2a, a milestone from Requirement 2b, or the community history you researched in Requirement 5? Drawing those links shows your counselor that the pieces of this badge fit together.

Official Resources