yes you have to earn them some troops leaders buy them others don't and you have to buy them yourselves. my girls aren't in girlscouts anymore and figured if i could help someone from having to buy them then that would be great..
My daughter was in girl scouts years ago and I didn't remember if you had to buy the patches yourself or not. It's great that you can offer them for someone that can use them and not have to buy them. I'm sure they are a lot more expensive than they were 25 yrs ago when my daughter was in girl scouts.