Report by Victoria Adams

One of the single most important things for a guide from a young age upwards is their camp blanket. It's the chance not only to give your fingers the prodded, pin poked look that females so (not!) totally desire but also a memory and badge album to tell a story.

Although this story may only be understood by the blankets owner, it shows all the many badges that a guide up to a guider gathers over the years.

One of the most spectacular camp blankets that I know of belongs to Zan Rawsthorne. For this woman it has been a 28 buying, swapping and stitching hobby onto her army issue blanket from the 2nd world war which she was given by her grandma.

Zan Rawsthorne and her camp blanket

When I asked Zan for her reason why she had started a camp blanket she said that on her very first camp there was a girl who had a filled camp blanket and this inspired her to do it as well. Over the years she has swapped many badges with other guides and scouts.

The two most important badges to her are her Gold Duke of Edinburgh badge and her Queen's Guide badge.

For her and many other thousands, the camp blanket has kept guiding close to her heart.