I well remember my first sash. It was a short one, well I was young and smaller then! I remember carefully sewing on my first honors, Baking, Basketry, Beginners Swimming, Birds, Braiding, Dogs, Felt Craft, Junior First Aid, and Woodworking. I used colors of thread that corresponded with the honor token, which made it easier to clip them out years later when I updated my sash to one a bit larger.
Why a sash? Seems pretty easy to answer, a place was needed to keep the honors from getting lost and to keep them clean. Sashes were not needed until after the honors were developed – 1928 and onward.
The sash was developed to place the honors that were earned through MV (Adventist Youth) and JMV (Pathfinders). They were developed to inspire others to achieve their goals and to keep a record of what you learned.
From the 1929 Junior Missionary Volunteer Handbook, page 88 “to be worn diagonally over the chest…on which the tokens can be sewed. In this way they may be kept in good condition, and will always be ready to wear on special occasions, such as Investiture services, special programs…” In 1931 the handbook read as follows: “may be worn over the shoulder, be made that the tokens can be sewed…”
1933 A sash filled with honor badges and buttons … Pacific Union Recorder, May 17, 1933, p. 4.
In 1937 it was actually called“a Vocational Honor Sash,”Central UnionReaper, May 18, 1937, p.8.
Miss Wittstock is in the centre of the group picture is wearing her sash upon which is displayed her many tokens. Southern Africa Division Outlook, September 1, 1940, p.3.
Wilbur Holbrook’s Honor Sash (1940s)
So when sashes were first used what color were they? The answer is Forest Green the same material as the ladies dresses.
During World War II the General Conference published a bulletin, July 14, 1942 stating that “the Oak Park Academy Industries is no longer able to obtain material for the Vocational Honor Sashes in forest green, but only in gray.”Voted, that we accept for the duration the gray material for the Vocational Honor Sash.” (MV Minutes) That answers why we have forest green sashes and then gray sashes.
1946 – Vocational Honors – Sash for honors to be 4” wide and no longer than your fingertips. The Missionary Volunteer class pin, neckerchief and sash, with its varicolored tokens are symbols for happy fellowship- and ever enlarging experiences. In 1941, 75 vocational projects were provided … Today this has been increased to 107 honors, and these are calculated to appeal to youth of every age level and condition. The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, June 11, 1946, p. 119-120.
For a short period of time around 1947 bright green felt sashes were made. I have found no reason for using felt sashes, but it may also have had to do with availability. We have several of the felt sashes in our display.
1949 the colors and styles of the uniform are those adopted by the General Conference Missionary Volunteer Department for the world field. The sashes are to be made from the same material as the uniform and conform in style and color to those adopted by the General Conference Young People’s Department. Australasian Record, November 28, 1949, p.8.
The 1951 Junior Missionary Volunteer Handbook showed a drawing of a Pathfinder wearing a full dress uniform including the honor sash. By this time individuals were placing Camporee patches on the back side of the sash.
When I was a Club Director, working with teens, I asked the teens to bring their sashes, and any honors that were not yet fastened to the sash. We then had a simple lesson in sewing neatly, without showing the thread, how to pin them first to keep them straight, etc. Often someone would say “my mom sews my patches on”. My reply was always “yes when you were a little kid but now you are a teen and this is something you need to learn to do. You can’t go through life expecting your mom to fix everything for you.
Besides mom didn’t earn that honor token, you did! It will most likely not be sewed upside down if the person that earned the honor is the one sewing it on their own sash.” Many a teen thanked me later for helping them learn to do something for themselves.
It was not until about the 1990’s that a problem began to surface when individuals began making their sashes longer and wider. I often wonder if they realize how foolish they look – overwhelming in fact – and not what a true Dress Uniform should look like.
So now we realize that sashes changed through the years but the intent to show honor patches and later class pins has not changed.
So I have a few suggestions for you over achievers … look at your sash, if you have regular and also advanced honor tokens on your sash, (way back when the advanced honors were embroidered with a gold star) remove the regular because of course you would have the basic honor first so you only need one, the one with the gold star. To the younger group I would say you don’t have two honors now as when you earn a basic you wear it and add the star when you complete the advanced honor.
If you have Camporee patches and other special Pathfinder items take them off that sash and sew them on a jacket or vest. Your sash will look neater, not like you are showing off, maybe you will need to cut off some extra material and shorten your sash or maybe it is way too wide.Four inches and three honors wide is suggested, if you overlap a bit, you can get four across without looking like you are bragging.
If you have been in Pathfinders a while you see about everything, sashes that are way longer and way wider than regulation. You see items on a sash that have absolutely nothing to do with Pathfinders. This is not true Pathfindering – it borders on bragging.
It is acceptable for a Pathfinder that only has a few honors and patches to place their patches on the back of the sash and the honors on the front of their sash.
I cringe at some of the bandito looks, wearing two at a time like a person needs to brag about their accomplishments. Some sashes are so long they are a tripping hazard. I think we are forgetting what it is all about, how Pathfinders is a Ministry not a show and tell event. When Pathfinders read the guidelines they know as an adult you are not following them so their reasoning may go like … why should I listen to you – you don’t follow the guidelines set out for Uniforms.
I have been in Pathfinder’s for a few years, more than fifty, so I have quite a few honors. When individuals ask me how many honors I have I honestly tell them “I do not know.”Of course, a Pathfinder will offer to count them for me to which I answer “well I have more at home in a drawer. I don’t wear them to be counted I wear my honor sash to share that I love the Lord, His Pathfinder Ministry and the young people.” The honor sash shows what areas I have learned about and as an adult most likely could teach. NOT an honor token to count how many you can obtain.
Please keep your sash neat, don’t staple or glue on your honors, neatly sew them on or purchase “Badge Magic” from AdventSource to fasten them to your sash. Remember sashes are a way to share our Honor history.
One can look forward to seeing the display and history of the Honor Sashes in the Adventist Youth Ministries Museum – A Discovery and Learning Center when it is built in Battle Creek, Michigan.
