Three Fires Council

Three Fires Council Venturer’s and Advisor
attend the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Sweden.

 

Words cannot explain the experience both the youth and advisor’s had attending the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Sweden this past July/Aug 2011.  It is like nothing else we have experienced before.  I don’t know where to start……..Attendance was over 40,000 scouts from 160 countries around the world.  This was the 2nd highest attended World Jamboree in history. 

Upon arrival, we were provided tents, a dining fly and a few cardboard boxes with our cooking equipment.  We had to build our own cooking tables, wash bin racks, etc out of timbers and rough sawn planks.  Pioneering skills are second nature to most other countries.   Unit gateways were impressive.  Some built small cabins 6 meters off the ground, I saw one gate way that the scouts actually made a spiral staircase leading up to a lookout tower 10 meters high.  (They encouraged structures to be less than 10 meters in height, That’s 30 feet!!!

One tower that was a tower of towers stood 150 feet high.  You can see it in the background in the photo of Dave Bruns, Indian Prairie District Commissioner and myself posing in front of it.  Everyone was allowed up to the lookout deck, 30 meters in the air (90 feet).

To the left of our campsite, we had a unit from Italy, to the right a unit from the UK, behind us a unit from Portugal, and in front a unit from Korea and all around us units from Japan, Germany, Ireland, Bangladesh, Turkey, South Africa, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the list goes on and on and on.

I learned that Scouts don’t trade patches in other countries, instead they “swap badges” . Neckerchief trading is a high priority and in high demand among scouts from all other countries, Scouts from the USA learned quickly.  Most Scouts wear their neckerchief even with their scout T-shirt.  Scouts traded their uniform shirts too.  Below you will see Kevin Harrington wearing his newly traded uniform from Bangladesh.  Keep a lookout; you might see me wearing my new uniform that I traded for from Japan, home of the next World Scout Jamboree in 2015.

In the photos, you may have noticed girls everywhere.  In all other countries both girls and boys are in the same Scouting units.  They cook together, camp together, share the workload together.  Our Venture Crew, Crew 70107, one of only two Venturing Crews from the United States that had the honor to bring girls along was assembled from both girls and boys together from units in our area.  Only 30 girls from the United States participated and experienced the World Scout Jamboree as a scout.  Scouts got to meet Bear Grylls, The King of Sweden, Royalty from Saudi Arabia and more.

Some Scouting events are a once in a lifetime experience.  This was a LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE.