Scout Jamboree Gets Underway

Last year I blogged about a friend’s daughter who was going to to the World Scout Jamboree.

Doesn’t time fly?  Sabrina has been working really hard over the last 18 months to raise enough money to take part in this event, and she’s done it (of course!) – she left yesterday for the massive gathering in Sweden.

She writes…

The Report of Rampions’ Romp, by Sabrina Draude

I applied to go to the Jamboree because I have been a Scout for nine years and I believe this will be the biggest scouting event and the highlight of my Scouting career. I will get to do activities ranging from abseiling to zorbing and meet a variety of people from across the globe.

Geography is my favourite subject and I am thrilled that I will get to meet people with different cultures, religions and beliefs. The World Scout Jamboree is a great peace exercise allowing young people from around the world get meet regardless of   geographical, religious and cultural borders. It is an experience of a lifetime where participants get extensive leadership training and tools for contributing to a better society in their local communities.

We all knew when we applied for Jamboree that it would be a lot of work to fundraise the money we needed; but actually I think that what sounded like an impossible target wasn’t. It just took a lot of hard work and effort from a lot of people; not just us Jamborettes but parents and groups as well. One of the best fundraisers was bag packing in Sainsbury’s. In order to help those Scouts who would otherwise have not been able to participate in the Jamboree, Operation One World was initiated: a Solidarity fund. Part of everybody’s Jamboree fund will assist Scouts with the costs for transportation, participation fee, entry visas and camp equipment as well as preparation costs and costs staying in Sweden before and after the World Scout Jamboree.

When I arrived at the first Jamboree meeting, I was extremely excited, but nervous as I only knew a few people. But everyone was really relaxed and we were soon laughing and joking with each other and finding similar interests. From the moment we started chatting you could feel the shared enthusiasm of everyone in the room and we all left with lots to talk about and enthusiasm for our first camp in a few months time.

Our first camp was held at Blacklands farm. We met on the Saturday morning and, after setting up, had a day full of team building activities followed by a campfire.

Everyone was really looking forward to the Jamboree already, even though it was a year away.

I was honoured to be selected to go for training to become a young spokesperson for the Jamboree. This took place over two days at Gilwell Park with 52 other Scouts from Birmingham to London. We were taught how to speak on television, radio and even for a stand up in front of an audience. I learned many skills; from twisting the words round to answer my own questions, to variation of voice pitch to stress important points.

On Saturday evening we were awarded with learning to barn dance, which I particularly enjoyed. The weekend ended with an apprentice type challenge, where we got to put our newly acquired skills into use. After presenting, watching and reading media I was exhausted.

The last camp we went on was held as Broadstone Warren: this time we slept the Friday night as well. Despite the freezing temperatures, we had a really good time. It was the first opportunity for us to do activities in our patrols which had been allocated at the previous meeting. This camp was good, not just because of the people, but the different activities we got to do; such as site service (similar to what we will do whilst on the Jamboree); team-work, on ‘The Rack’ and Jacob’s Ladder (a large ladder where the gap gets increasingly bigger until you can’t reach them); and designing and building our pioneering gateway, which we will reconstruct on our campsite in Sweden. We also learnt some basic Swedish and sampled some food! It all gave us some idea of what

Sweden will be like for us as participants; we’ve seen pictures and heard from people who have been but, until we get on site, I don’t think any of us can really say exactly what it is going to be like. We have become a really close group now and even before going on the Jamboree itself I know I have made friends with an amazing (and slightly crazy) group of people. What we do know, though, is that we’ll have a brilliant time and we will make more friendships that will last for life.

Hope you have a great time Sabrina with experiences and friendships that will last a life time.  Looking forward to hearing about it when you get back!