THE RIBBON COLLECTOR

A newsletter for those who value the bits of colored cloth

and similar or associated items made of other materials

intended as awards of recognition in the U.S. of A.

ISSUE No. 5

DECEMBER 2017

>>>>>> (This version has been modified and reformatted for compatibility with Webpage display) <<<<<<

PUBLISHED BY

Garreteer Press (formerly Patriot Press) P.O. Box 937, Lompoc CA 93438-0937–Greg Ogletree, Proprietor

Dear Ribbon Aficionados,

Many years have passed since the previous issue of this periodical was published. In fact, it was done on a typewriter! At that time, there was a need for a publication devoted exclusively to the topic of awards represented only by a ribbon, not a length of ribbon like one might get for First Place in a 50-yard dash or Best of Show at a county fair, but a ribbon bar intended to be worn on a uniform or perhaps on mufti. The need for such a publication has arisen once again because there is no organization in this country interested in publishing the article contained in this edition. The topic of the article (and several more to follow in the near future) is ribbon bars awarded by a religious youth organization. The two foremost organizations whose interest includes awards are the Orders and Medals Society of America (OMSA) and the American Society of Military Insignia Collectors (ASMIC). OMSA is focused on the study of orders, decorations, and medals (ODM), and their only real interest in ribbons lies in those from which ODM are suspended or to which they are otherwise affixed—a tangential interest at best. The “M” in “ASMIC” announces that organization’s disinterest in anything that is not military. The only other option was to resurrect The Ribbon Collector, so at long last, here it is again!

Unlike before, however, the revived newsletter is not planned for publication at regular inter-vals and there will be no membership roster. Furthermore, the various sections that appeared in the earlier issues have been omitted and each issue probably will contain just a single article. Additionally, the ribbon swatches that accompanied each of the earlier newsletters have been discontinued, and there will be no more enclosures. But on the plus side, the product is now published in full color! On matters related to award ribbons, this is imperative. Providing a full-color product, once cost-prohibitive, is now possible due to advances in technology.

Much has changed since the typewriter era. Whereas the previous issues were mailed because e-mail had not yet been invented and public use of the Internet was not yet an option, this newsletter can now be sent via that medium, which will be the primary means of distribution. Also, as soon as is practical, this publication (including the first four issues) will be posted online for viewing, but for the collectors and historians without computers, a hardcopy edition will always be available, gratis. Although there is no longer a “membership roster,” there is a mailing list, and all one has to do to receive this newsletter is ensure the editor has your name and current e-mail or postal address. Enjoy!

Greg Ogletree

Editor

Awana Ribbon Bar Awards

by Greg Ogletree

One of the faith-based youth organizations that created a number of awards for its members to wear on their uniforms is AWANA, which stands for “Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed” (as derived from the Bible in II Timothy 2:15). Although the name is an acronym, it is usually seen as the word “Awana” rather than in all-caps. Awana members are referred to as “clubbers.”

Awana was founded in 1950, but its roots go further back. In 1941, the children's program at the North Side Gospel Center in Chicago laid the foundation for the principles of Awana. Lance Latham, North Side's senior pastor, collaborated with the church's youth director, Art Rorheim, to develop weekly clubs that they believed would appeal to all children. Other churches learned about the success of the program and inquired about its availability. Latham and Rorheim founded Awana as a parachurch organization in 1950, and by 1960, 900 churches of many different denominations had started Awana programs. In 1972, the organization moved beyond the United States and, today, youth in more than 100 countries participate in Awana programs and millions of adults around the world are alumni. Several different types of awards have been used over the years for the Awana program. These include embroidered patches, pins, stickers, plastic “jewels” and similar bling-like items that were attached to plastic badges, and for girls, charms that were suspended from brooch-like bars, but this article will focus on the awards that were represented by ribbon bars, which Awana called “achievement bars.” The most complete array of these is the framed display shown below in Figure 1.

$C:\Users\Greg\Downloads\Awana Achievement Bars.jpg$

Figure 1

As can be seen on the above card, these were awards for two different groups of youth, one called Pals and the other Pioneers. At the time this display was made, Pals was the group for boys in Grades 3-5, and Pioneers was for boys in Grades 6-8. (Girls in these age groups were called Chums and Guards, respectively, but they did not use achievement bars.) As the display shows, both groups were originally divided into three age-related sub-groups: Pals used an Indian theme and contained Hunters (Grade 3), Braves (Grade 4), and Warriors (Grade 5), while Pioneers, with a Western theme, was comprised of Explorers (Grade 6), Trailblazers (Grade 7), and Rangers (Grade 8). Achievement bars were earned in three categories: Attendance, Craft, and Sword Drill. “Sword” was used as a synonym for “Bible” (Ephesians 6:17) and the drills primarily involved memorization of Bible verses, names of the books of the Bible, and Bible knowledge quizzes. The categories were the same for all the sub-groups, called ranks, in both Pals and Pioneers, but the bars were unique for each, making a total of 18 different ribbons.

Figure 2

Although the display of achievement bars in Figure 1 was not dated, we know the bars were introduced at or near the very beginning of the program in 1950 because they are displayed and described in the earliest handbooks. Figure 2 shows a Pals Club Hunter’s handbook from 1951 opened to the pages about the uniform and insignia. Even though the bars are arranged differently than those in the framed display, they have the same names and color patterns.

Lest anyone wonder, there were also Awana groups for younger and older youth. Those for younger children have evolved into what today are called Sparks (Grades K-2), created in 1976; Cubbies (ages 3-5), created in 1981; and Puggles (ages 2 and 3), created in 2007, all coed. High school-age groups were very similar to those for the younger clubbers in Grades 3-8, including having separate programs for males (Pilots) and females (Mariners). In 1962, the Pilots and Mariners were combined to make one coed group for all high schoolers called Shipmates. In 1981, the Shipmates program was renamed Awana Teen Ministries, which eventually oversaw two programs: Junior Varsity (Grades 7-8), and Varsity (Grades 9-12). Later, these were eliminated entirely during a restructuring which resulted in a Trek program for middle schoolers and a Journey program for high schoolers. So far as is known, none of the clubbers in either the younger or older age/grade groups used or use achievement bars, so there will be no further discussion of these other age groups, except for a brief mention of Junior Varsity.

Another restructuring occurred in 2002 that replaced Pals/Chums and Pioneers/Guards with what is now called “Ultimate Adventure” and “Ultimate Challenge,” respectively, in a totally new program for these age groups called “Truth & Training.” Nevertheless, a number of churches have chosen not to implement the new program and are still using the older one, which means the Pals and Pioneers achievement bars are not obsolete quite yet. Let’s now take a closer look at those bars.

$C:\Users\Greg\Downloads\AWANA Pioneer bars.jpg$

Figure 3

Officially called “Achievement Bars,” these awards were originally plastic-covered fabric ribbons that were very similar in both construction and appearance to some service ribbons worn in the past by certain military members on their service uniforms. Unfortunately, the framed display in Figure 1 is not dated so it’s not known exactly when these were introduced, but all available evidence tends to point to either 1950 or 1951. These were still in use during the very early 1980s because those for the Pioneers were illustrated in the 1980 Explorer Handbook on page 13, as seen in Figure 3. Note that additional awards for Pioneers were represented on the ribbons by bronze stars for Attendance, silver stars for Craft, and gold stars for Sword Drill, and that bronze, silver, and gold arrowhead devices were used to indicate additional awards for Pals (as can be seen in Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 4

Rather than being equipped with some type of integral attaching mechanism (e.g., a catch-pin or clutch-type prongs), achievement bars were constructed so that they could be slid onto what Awana called a bar holder that had prongs with clutches (Figure 4). Apparently the holders were available in just one size, which was long enough to accommodate three bars. When a Pals or Pioneers clubber had only one achievement bar to wear on his uniform, silver-gray “filler bars” (also shown in Figure 4) were available to cover the otherwise vacant portions of the bar holder. It’s not known what clubbers with two bars did, but unless there were also half-length filler bars, portions of the bar holder would have been visible. As we shall soon see, sometime during the early 1980s the fabric bars were replaced with all-plastic achievement bars that eliminated the need for bar holders and filler bars.

In 1984, a restructuring occurred which significantly altered both the Pal and Pioneer programs. A new program called Junior Varsity (JV) was created for 7th and 8th graders. Consequently, Pioneers, that had been for clubbers in grades 6-8, became the group for 5th and 6th graders, and Pals was similarly changed to a program for just 3rd and 4th graders. In other words, each of these programs lost a year-group to accommodate the new JV program. One result of this was the loss of an entire row of achievement ribbons for both Pals and Pioneers because the Hunter and Explorer ranks were eliminated. So the six corresponding ribbon bars were no longer awarded after 1984. This was reflected in subsequent handbooks, one of which is shown below in Figure 5, in which the Hunter rank is conspicuously absent. Nevertheless, the bars for the discontinued ranks were still authorized for wear by those who had earned them.

$C:\Users\Greg\Downloads\AWANA Pal Uniform Awards (1991).jpg$

Figure 5

A close look at the above image will also reveal that by the time this particular handbook was published, the fabric achievement bars had been replaced by all-plastic ones, each pierced with four equally spaced holes (visible in Figure 6) to accommodate placement of the metal devices (arrowheads and stars), referred to in Awana literature as “inserts,” that originally indicated additional awards. This change to plastic had to have occurred prior to 1984, when the Hunters and Explorers were eliminated, because plastic bars exist for those ranks too, as will be seen later in this work. Astute observers will also note in the above illustration that the Sword Drill bar for Brave (the one on the right end) has been changed from white with a narrow red center stripe to a bi-color of red and white, probably because it was easier to produce. The reason for the switch from fabric to plastic bars is not known, but one might logically assume that the latter were easier to attach the metal devices to, and also probably less expensive.

$C:\Users\Greg\Downloads\AWANA plastic bars (framed).jpg$

Figure 6

For the Pioneers program, a post-1984 handbook could not be located but we know Pioneers achievement bars from the later period exist, and they too were made of plastic (Figure 6), so they were probably adopted for that program at the same time as were the Pals bars. Readers will note that, unlike the plastic bars for Pals awards, which for the most part were accurate representations of the fabric ribbon bars they replaced, the plastic bars for Pioneers awards were solid colors—significantly different from the multicolored designs of the earlier fabric bars. A quick look at Figure 1 reminds us that these new yellow, green, and red bars are the exact same colors as the achievement bars from the discontinued Hunter rank in the Pals program, but there is no doubt that these are, in fact, Pioneers bars because each row of bars says “PIONEERS” on the reverse side. So now, the multicolored ribbon bars formerly used in the Pioneers program have been replaced by plain yellow, green, and red bars, some of which are pictured below. Because the bar colors were identical for all Pioneers ranks, the ranks were differentiated by colored frames surrounding the bars. Shown are frames of brown (presumably intended to represent bronze) and silver, which it is believed were used by Explorers and Trailblazers. Not shown are the bars framed by gold, used by Rangers.

Not readily apparent in the illustrations of the achievement bars shown in Figures 5 and 6 is the fact that each row of three ribbons is of one-piece construction; i.e., the bars cannot be separated from each other. This characteristic eliminated the need for filler bars, but it also meant that a clubber could no longer wear just one or two achievement bars—it was three or none—so, concurrent with introduction of the plastic bars was a procedural shift in which the initial award was represented by an insert rather than the bar itself. In other words, the colored plastic bars did not represent the actual award, as the fabric ribbon bars had, but became merely a place to display the award elements (inserts). This is clearly stated in the 1991 Awana Pals Warrior Handbook: “To receive the CLUB ATTENDANCE AWARD (bronze arrowhead insert), you are…” (page 120). One can imagine that all those empty holes acted as a pretty good incentive to earn the inserts as soon as possible!

Awana has been a uniformed organization since its founding as the Awana Youth Association in 1950. Awana created the kid’s uniforms from gray shirts that had been sewn for the Chicago Police Department, and clubbers are still often referred to colloquially as “Gray Shirts.” The achievement bars were worn above the left shirt pocket. It’s not clear if an official order of precedence ever existed; none is mentioned in any of the handbooks reviewed for this article. The 1980 handbook states, “Be sure your insignia is placed correctly on the shirt by following the directions given with each insignia.” A later handbook says, “Be sure all your awards are displayed correctly on your uniform. Follow the directions given with each award.” Both contain a photograph of a uniformed clubber with the achievement bars worn on the upper left chest (each shirt has a pocket only on the wearer’s right side). But in earlier times, Awana uniforms had pockets on both sides, and the achievement bars are shown placed above the wearer’s left pocket in the illustration contained on the instruction card, titled AWARDS AND EMBLEM PLACEMENT AWANA BOYS UNIFORM (Figure 7) that accompanied the plastic-covered fabric achievement bars awarded during the organization’s first several decades.

$C:\Users\Greg\Downloads\AWANA ribbon (MIP).jpg$

Figure 7

As can be seen on this card, “as many as nine bars” were allowed to be worn. Apparently, the limit was later lifted—in other words, all nine of the original Pals bars and all nine of the original Pioneers bars could be worn simultaneously—because photos exist of clubbers wearing the complete array. There are photographs on the Awana Website showing such displays on the uniforms. One of those, circa 1975, suggests that if there was an order of precedence, it came close to the sequence shown in Figure 1, in reverse, with the bars for the older age groups (higher ranks) being worn above those earned in the younger age groups (lower ranks), which makes sense. The exception, according to the references image, is that the precedence sequence, from highest to lowest, was Attendance, Sword Drill, and Craft, rather than Attendance, Craft, and Sword Drill—as Figure 1 suggests—providing, of course, that the ribbons of highest precedence are placed to the wearer’s right, closest to the heart, as is done by the military. But one cannot always rely on photos, charts, or framed displays to draw accurate conclusions. The achievement bars on the uniform shown in Figure 8 are a case in point.

Figure 8

In this photo is a mix of both fabric bars and plastic bars, indicating that wearing both was okay, but confusing the question about precedence is the fact that the Pal awards are above rather than below the Pioneer awards, and the Sword Drill bar for Braves is to the wearer’s far right. This suggests there may have been no designated precedence at all. Reinforcing this conclusion is the fact that the two rows nearest the bottom are displayed such that the colors on the ends are opposite those on the other bar (technically, based upon the orientation of the word PIONEERS on the back, the bottom one is upside-down). What’s particularly confusing about the photo is that it shows both plastic and fabric bars from both Pals and Pioneers! One would expect that a clubber would have been in one program or the other when the change from fabric to plastic was made and that the mix of fabric and plastic resulting from that change would be apparent on a specific uniform in only one of the two programs (Pals if the clubber was in that program when the change was made, or Pioneers if the clubber was in that program when the change was made, but he could not have been in both programs at the same time). The one firm conclusion that can be drawn from Figure 8 is that there was little, if any, guidance about how to wear achievement ribbons other than what was contained on the instruction card that accompanied each award; i.e., “above the left pocket.”

But the achievement bar array shown in Figure 8 does provide one important bit of information about these awards: The change from individual fabric bars to a complete row of plastic bars was made prior to the elimination of the Hunter and Explorer ranks in 1984 when the Junior Varsity program was introduced. The evidence for this is the top row of bars, which shows the yellow, green, and red achievement bars unframed (they are mounted on a black or dark blue base) and with arrowhead inserts, which means they are the plastic achievement bars for the Hunter rank of Pals. As stated previously, we know the fabric bars were still being awarded in 1980 because they were pictured in that year’s handbook, and we know Hunters and Explorers were dispensed with in 1984, so that narrows the timeframe for replacement of the fabric bars with plastic ones to sometime between 1980 and 1984. Unfortunately, with the sources available to the author at present, narrowing the time frame even more is not possible.

So, in summary, the plastic-covered fabric achievement bars were awarded from the beginning in 1950 to the early 1980s, and the all-plastic achievement bars were awarded from the early 1980s until 2002 when the Pals and Pioneers Clubs were replaced by the Truth and Training (T&T) Club—at least officially. As stated earlier, a few churches have chosen to stick with the earlier programs rather than implement T&T. Ostensibly, this means some Awana youth are still being awarded Pals and Pioneers achievement bars. The Awana store no longer sells these so those using the old program must have either stocked up while the bars were still available, be buying them on the so-called secondary market (e.g., eBay), or encouraging Awana alumni in their church to pass their bars down to the next generation of clubbers. The bottom line is that all Awana achievement bars are technically obsolete and no longer made or sold by Awana. The earlier, plastic-covered, fabric bars were of rather common color patterns that were and are used by other organizations (they were not unique patterns), but the hard-plastic protective covering over the fabric hasn’t been offered in many years. Consequently, all Awana achievement bars are becoming difficult to find. Even so, let’s hope their value will be judged more by the accomplishments for which they were awarded than by any desire for them by collectors. v

Sources:

“Awards and Emblem Placement – Awana Boys Uniform” – an undated card that accompanied the Awana awards and insignia earned by or otherwise presented to Awana youth members.

“Celebrating Generation after Generation of Lasting Faith in Christ” – Awana History Press Room Document 11-8-10, ©2010 Awana Clubs International (a timeline of Awana events and milestones, viewable online at: www.awana60years.org, retrieved 4/11/17).

… and also a photograph of awards on a uniform shirt found on an online site using the “Images” search function of Google.