Silver Beaver Award

Infobox Awards |box_width= 19em
title= Distinguished Service Awards
award1= Silver Buffalo Award
award2= Silver Antelope Award
award3= Silver World Award
award4= Distinguished Eagle Scout Award The Silver Beaver Award is the council-level distinguished service award of the Boy Scouts of America. Recipients of this award are registered adult leaders who have made an impact on the lives of youth through service given to the council.

The Silver Beaver is an award given to those who implement the Scouting program and perform community service through hard work, self sacrifice, dedication, and many years of service. It is given to those who do not actively seek it.

Award

The award consists of a silver beaver suspended from a blue and white ribbon worn around the neck. Recipients may wear the corresponding square knot, with a white strand over a blue strand, on the BSA uniform.

History

The Silver Beaver was introduced in 1931 as a pin-on medal, but due to the heavy weight of the medallion it was switched over to a neck ribbon in mid-1932. [cite web |url=http://mitchreis.com/beaver.htm |title=Silver Beaver Medals |accessdate=2007-04-10 |author=Mitch Reis |work=Boy Scout Memorabilia, Patches And Collectibles Home Page] A blue-white-blue ribbon bar was introduced in 1934 for informal uniform wear. In 1946, ribbon bars were replaced by the current knot insignia. [cite web |url=http://www.sageventure.com/history/knothist/IllustratedHistoryofKnotEvolutionPart1.pdf |title=Illustrated History of BSA Square Knot Evolution and Private Issues |accessdate=2007-08-02 |work=SageVenture ]

The Silver Beaver was initially awarded only to men. The Silver Fawn Award, an equivalent for women was awarded starting in 1971. It used the same knot insignia, but on a blue background. The Silver Fawn was discontinued and the Silver Beaver began to be awarded to women in 1974. A total of 2,455 Silver Fawns were awarded to outstanding women for support of Cub Scouting before the award was discontinued in 1974. [cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/~PACK215/silver-fawn.html |title=The Silver Fawn Medal |accessdate=2008-04-12 |work=The Virtual Cub Leader's Handbook]

References