This Award is meant for Boy Scouts.
Decide for yourself if it is appropriate for your younger scouts or not.

The National Camping Award is both an annual and a cumulative award for units which receive a ribbon for the troop flag. Individuals, scouts, and scouters can also qualify for a cumulative patch by participating in campouts with their families, or patrols as well as unit campouts. Any combination of unit and individual campouts can be used to qualify for the individual cumulative award. Use the National Camping Award Form to record its campouts and apply for awards. An individual can use the National Camping Individual Award Form to record his campouts and apply for awards.

The patch is an individual award for which all members of a unit may not qualify. Only those members who have met the cumulative camp out levels may qualify for one of the four awards. Each individual member needs to keep track of his personal campouts and have them approved by the scoutmaster. The patch can be placed on a backpack or worn as a temporary badge on the uniform.

To earn the annual National Camping Award, a unit must have reached one of these levels of camping achievement:

• 10 days and nights of camping - Unit Award Number 17831
• 20 days and nights of camping - Unit Award Number 17832
• 30 days and nights of camping - Unit Award Number 17833
• 50 days and nights of camping - Unit Award Number 17834

To earn the cumulative National Camping Award, a unit must fulfill one of the following levels of camping during the entire history of the unit:

• 100 days and night of camping - Unit award Number 17827
• 250 days and night of camping - Unit award Number 17828
• 500 days and night of camping - Unit award Number 17829
• 1000 days and night of camping - Unit award Number 17830

The ribbon can also be displayed with the troop flag.


Individual scouts and scouters can also qualify for a National Camping Award patch provided that the required cumulative number of days and nights of camping has been met. This total can include any combination of camping with the scouts family, patrol or unit.

• 100 days and nights of camping - Patch Number 00296
• 250 days and nights of camping - Patch Number 00297
• 500 days and nights of camping - Patch Number 00298
• 1000 days and nights of camping - Patch Number 00299

Both the unit and individual cumulative awards are retroactive to January 1, 1991.