SC pins?

[p51]

I just scored a small SC grouping off ePay that had a SC logo pin in it. There's a grouping on ePay right now that has another one, but from the Florida camp. So far, that's the only one I've ever seen anywhere.
They don't have anything like that at Huntsville (even a gal at the checkout stared off into space for a moment and said, "You know, that would be something good for us to have, I wonder also why we don't sell them?").
When did they stop selling all the camp insignia like they used to? They have oodles of t-shirts, I'll give them that, but hardly any patches and the only pins they have right now are what's left of the 30th anniversary ones (which I bought another one of when i was there last month).
Has anyone ever sat down with the right people to ask them stuff like that? These are the things they really should have, in my opinion:
*Space Academy patches
*Advanced Space Academy patches
*Space Camp 'hat' pin
*Space Academy 'hat' pin
*Advanced Space Academy 'hat' pin
*Space Camp alumni patch and pin
*Camp flight suit 'nameplate' patches with camp wings (and not USAF ones)
*Metal camp wings, similar to what the instructors have, with a SC logo in the center
Any other ideas? I'm seriously considering writing up some kind of proposal as I feel they're missing some serious money in the long run. I'm sure that many in my group alone at SA would have bought some of this stuff! Like one woman on my team said what I spotted her on the second day with a SC cap with the 30th pin on the back said, "Hey, it's the only thing they had."

[Hotdog]

Are these the metal wings you are talking about? Not sure what the wings look like these days, but this is the set I was given in 1994 for graduating Space Academy Level II. Before that year you got gray pewter wings with a generic shield in the middle that was either red for Camp or blue for Academy.

When you say ePay, I'm assuming you mean eBay?

They really do need more alumni-branded items. I would have bought 2 or 3 of those alumni polo shirts had I known they were only going to sell them that summer (25th anniversary).

[Hotdog]

I went back and checked my old Space Gear catalogs from the early 90s. The pins did exist as my fuzzy recollection insisted. Surprised they don't still offer these.

[p51]

Are these the metal wings you are talking about?

Wow, I've never seen those before. I'd have LOVED to have gotten one of those when I completed camp! The wings they give you now are the generic ones like you mentioned. The people who work there get a really nice set of metal wings with the logo in the center, and I'm hoping eventually one will pop up online for sale.

When you say ePay, I'm assuming you mean eBay?

Yeah, that's on purpose, I've been calling it that for a long time now. Funny, you're the first person to take notice of it.

They really do need more alumni-branded items. I would have bought 2 or 3 of those alumni polo shirts had I known they were only going to sell them that summer (25th anniversary).

They only have a grey alumni t-shirt right now. I bought two shirts there the day before camp and got the one they give campers, I balked at buying yet another one until the final day. Steve (from this forum) and I were standing in the gift shop that last day of camp and I said, "Y'know, I'll regret not getting this," and got it. I've worn it a few times since then and have gotten quite a few random (and always positive) comments from people walking by who've noticed!

[Boomerang]

The wings the counselors have on their name tags have a shuttle orbiter in the middle if they are the same ones used by counselors in 07. The wings are out there because they are awarded for one of the school programs i believe its astrotrek. I have a pair i got ahold of while working at Ac in 07 somewhere.

[p51]

The wings the counselors have on their name tags have a shuttle orbiter in the middle if they are the same ones used by counselors in 07. The wings are out there because they are awarded for one of the school programs i believe its astrotrek. I have a pair i got ahold of while working at Ac in 07 somewhere.

The couselors actually have both. The nameplates that are sewn have the orbiter in the center. However, they also get a metal set that look like USAF wings with the SC logo in the center. Only a few of them had them and I asked how they got those. Most counselors don't wear them because the nameplates are easier to wear than the metal wings.

[p51]

Just got my ePay lot of Space Camp swag. It included a SC Florida patch (the second one I have now, if anyone wants to buy one of them, I don't need two) and the SC pin, which is what I really wanted from the grouping. The pin itself I got is the "B" item on this page:

But I'd really love to get my mitts on one of the Academy pins like this one!

[Conan]

This thread got me wondering if I could find all of my spacecamp wings. I searched around and found all 12. Some were on patches on flightsuits or a jacket and a couple I had put into displays of my awards. I was surprised at how many different styles there are. I took a photo: This is a closer look:

I also took a photo of some of my pins.

The silvery shuttle pins were all awards and the others I bought in the giftshop.

[p51]

Interesting wings with the orbiter over the shield. That's what the current trainers are wearing on their nameplates, in embroidered form now. When were you given those?
I so love those Academy wings with the full color logo in the center! I've never seen a set of those turn up on eBay since I started looking for camp stuff over a year ago.
Interesting nameplates with the crew positions, did you get those made afterward? You sure can't anything that looks that good done at camp these days!

[Boomerang]

The full color logo wings are really hard to find it seems i have never been able to get ahold of a pair either. They were given to space Academy Level 2 trainees before it became Advanced Space Academy in 1997. The shuttle wings are i believe given to Astrotrek trainees or one of the other school based programs that make up most of the winter and spring camp sessions. I think counselors wear them because these are the first programs most space side counselors are trained on. Atleast when i was there counselors wore the wings for the programs they were trained on in actual wing form and the name plates had the shuttle ones for space side counselors and AC counselors could cose either Navy or Airforce wings for their name plate. I have a pair of the actual shuttle wings like above somewhere i picked up in 07 but as an AC counselor my fliught suit name plate has navy wings

[Conan]

I got the mission specialist name patch made up the first year I attended, in 1988. The Conan patch was given to me at graduation the first time I attended Adult AC, in 1997. Everyone got a patch with their call sign. The one with just my full name was made up in advance on a free uniform they gave out one year in the 1990s. (It doesn't have my middle initial, which I always use, so I put it on an old AC flight suit that I superseded with a newer one.) The one with my last name only, I got made up to put on my jacket. I can't remember when I got the wings with the shuttle over the shield. It may have been the one time I went to Parent/Child camp in Florida, instead of Alabama. I never went to a teacher's program or Astrotek. Just Space Academy's, Parent/Child camps and AC.

[Boomerang]

They might have used them for parent child as well the shuttle wings that is i honestly dont remember. i know when i worked there they were not given out to regular adult or regula week long youth programs. I never worked parent child camps so i don't know but i'd say its a good bet.

[p51]

There are all these book on collecting Space stuff, maybe there's room for; "The wings and patches of Space Camp"?
Makes you wonder if SC would even have the info on hand somewhere to explain when all this stuff changed?

[Boomerang]

I doubt theyd have the info seems like the best bet would be alumni to put information together pool it and figure out what came into being when. Space Camp doesnt even seem to keep what programs were what straight sometimes as evidenced by my previous comments about AC program names. I thibnk it would be cool to put together a guide to wings, patches, uniform items such as shirts, and flight suits, and another blast from the past no longer used program hats and visors. And i'm sure other items could be included like log books as well.

[Conan]

I had forgotten about the hats. I think I have a couple of them from Parent/Child camps too. When I look at the picture of my wings, I realize that all of my Space Academy wings are there without the one with the shuttle over the shield, so it had to come from a Parent/Child. I just don't know if it came from Florida or Alabama.
Maybe I should lay out all of my t-shirts and photograph them too. I have a drawer-full. I got one for each program but sometimes we were given a second one as a prize and I also bought a few in the gift shop.

[Hotdog]

I would love to see some of those vintage gift shop shirts, Conan!

[p51]

I would love to see some of those vintage gift shop shirts, Conan!

Me, too.
Y'know, there are vanity press outfits where you can write your own book, download it and allow others to order it. It'd be really cool to put together a small book on space camp collectibles, but you'd have to decode all the wings, when they were used and get all of them together. If I wasn't already working on a real book of my own on a totally different subject, I'm be tempted to look into that. But then again, SC is clearly a registered trademark and I doubt you'd get permission to use the name and logos...

[street]

The wings with the shuttle on the shield are normally issued to the Pathfinder program, a 3 day school/organization program that includes a shuttle mission. Astrotrek program, now called Surveyor program, does not receive wings, as they do not do a shuttle mission. That being said, occasionally we have problems getting wings from the manufacturer and have to issue different wings than normal for a particular program. You may have received the Pathfinder wings for any other program due to that problem.

[Conan]

Looking them over and comparing them to the programs that I attended, I am pretty sure that the wings with the shuttle over the shield in the center came from the Parent/Child program at the Florida Space Camp that I attended once. Also, I posted photos of all of my shirts in a different thread entitled "shirts" for any who want to see them. It is a 24-year collection, since the first camp I attended was in 1988.

[p51]

Well, after a little bit of trolling on eBay (the 30th pin I picked up myself at SC in September), here's what I have so far: