SWAPS: Make them, trade them & collect them!

Crafty trinkets adorn our camp hats. They jingle and wiggle and more are added every year! We make them, we trade them we collect them.

When I was in Guiding as a kid, my camp hat was piled with crafts. Each craft represented an activity we did or learnt. Our unit is following in the same footsteps and making mini bed rolls, owls, first-aid kits, time capsules; whatever we can think of. Each trinket commemorates an activity.

My girl camp hat was lost, so I have started anew. But I can look at each craft and remember the camp or meeting we made it. They are silly and fun. They are useful and are always a great conversation starter. Just meet any girl or Guider and ask her about one of her hat baubles, you will see a smile come across her face thinking

about the memory!

We trade them with other Guiding members as a token of friendship at meetings, camps, events, any place where we gather. I have seen seasoned Guiders with hats that are 8 inches piled with ornaments. Their hats must have weighed 10 pounds! You know that they must have some great memories.

So the next time you see Girls and Guiders wearing a camp hats, ask them about it, and you will get a smile and some great stories.