It started on a mountain, with my mom.
Back in 2013, my mom and I hiked the mountains near home almost every day. Somewhere on those trails we started dreaming: wouldn't it be fun to earn merit badges for the things we did — and pin them to a bandalo, just like the one she wore as a girl?
In the summer of 2020, when the whole world was baking sourdough and raising chickens, we finally did it. We dreamed up twelve categories, wrote the first badges, and my mom pulled out her old bandalo, made a pattern — and sewed one for every single woman who joined. We mailed thousands of badges that first summer.
Women wrote back. They loved it. We added a winter session to fight the winter blues, and members told us it truly helped. Now the club runs all year — winter, spring, summer, and fall — and every season we get to celebrate thousands of women doing wonderful, ordinary, extraordinary things.
Our mission is simple: to celebrate merit.
More specifically — your merit.
Peace & pine trees, Whitney
