Day Five: Burlington District

Burlington District, Ontario collected at CJ'81.

To be honest I am just guessing I traded this badge at the 5th Canadian Jamboree held in 1981 at Kananaskis, Alberta. I tended to collect Canadian badges at that event and international badges (naturally) at the World Jamboree two years later.

Until I was researching this entry I had no idea where Burlington District was. I have always loved the badge for its quality design and colourful rendering. Interestingly the current badge has a much more realistic depiction of a native chief for the 100th anniversary of their group. I think it may be Chief Joseph Brant, a hero of the Six Nations around the time of the American Rebellion.

Addendum: Thanks to Scouter Bill, Deputy Area Commissioner for the Burlington Area, we have the whole story:

Yes, it is indeed Joseph Brant on the new version of the Burlington Area badge.  Even in the past versions of the crest, the image on the badge was meant to represent him due to his significance to the Burlington Area.  However, 60ish years ago when the badge was first designed (by a youth from our Waterdown group), a Plains Indian headdress was used – so the image wound up being more generic than it was intended.  With Burlington Scouting’s 100^th anniversary approaching, one of our DAC’s, a bit of a badger himself, worked with the Joseph Brant museum to develop a new, more accurate image.  The new badge uses this representation while keeping the traditional look and feel or our Area crest. 

The badges were first worn at last June’s Council Chief Scout’s Award ceremony, which was hosted by Burlington.

 My Thanks to Scouter Bill for sharing this interesting story.