World Jamboree

Camping way out: Ohio boys mingle with global scouts

Camping way out: Ohio boys mingle with global scouts

By By SHELLEY EMLING

Cox News Service

Sunday, August 12, 2007

CHELMSFORD, England — Larry De Pasquale, Jr., a 15-year-old Boy Scout from Xenia had arrived at the World Scout Jamboree only 24 hours earlier and already he'd finagled his first dinner invitation to another campsite.
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A Scout leader, Charles Goodwin, head of general surgery at Children's Medical Center in Dayton, broke out in laughter.

"Is there a girl involved?" said Goodwin, called "Doc" by the Scouts.

De Pasquale, a freshman at Xenia High School, assured him there wasn't. But the look on the teenager's face was less convincing.

De Pasquale is among 40,000 Scouts and troop leaders from more than 160 countries attending the 21st World Scout Jamboree this week at Hylands Park, east of London.

Although much of what the 33 Ohio Scouts are encountering is familiar — there are plenty of tents and beef stew and camp songs — there is also the less familiar: girls.

Almost half the 14- to 18-year-old Scouts here are female. Unlike in the United States, most countries have co-ed Scout troops.

"There's been a cultural explosion in my address book," said Michael DeFleice, a 16—year—old from Cleveland. "I've already collected more than 10 phone numbers."

"And a few of them are from girls," he added.

The jamboree coincides with the 100th anniversary last Wednesday of the launch of the Scout movement by British war hero Robert Baden-Powell in 1907.

There are 3,000 or so American Scouts attending the biggest event in the history of scouting. The 12-day jamboree — which ran through Aug. 8 - featured Scouts from countries as far-flung as Iraq and Afghanistan, Korea and Kazakhstan, Angola and Argentina.

"We have a group of Scouts from Belgium next door," said David Hoy, a 17-year-old from Dayton. "Macedonia is just over there. And so are the German Scouts. They have the black tents that are very distinct."

In order to meet their neighbors, the Ohio Scouts make popcorn every night to share with others from different countries.

"I brought a whole bag — which probably weighed 50 pounds — of popcorn and seasoning with me from Ohio," said Goodwin, who's been a Scoutmaster for 22 years.

While the American Scouts dress in traditional khaki attire, Scouts from other parts of the world wear sombreros and Stetsons, bandanas and blazers. Scottish Scouts sport kilts, while Danish Scouts wear sky-blue T-shirts that read "Return of the Vikings."

What they all have in common are their neckerchiefs and the "woggles" designed to secure them — and a strong desire to get to know Scouts from other countries.

"We're walking around a lot and looking at the different uniforms," said Murry Chelette Jr., 14, a freshman at Centerville High School. "Some of the Scouts' uniforms look just like normal people's clothes."

"They don't look like our uniforms at all," he said.

David Milam, 14, also a freshman at Centerville High School, said he's been a Scout for three years and that the best part has always been camping outdoors.

"I especially like the food because when you cook over a fire it gives the food a different taste," he said.

Unfortunately for Milam, cooking on open fires was banned at the jamboree — due to health and safety regulations — and so cooking has been done on gas stoves under careful supervision.

But there will be plenty for Milam to focus on this week besides food.

After the jamboree ends, the Ohio Scouts will go on to tour London with visits to Windsor Castle, the Tower of London, Covent Garden, Buckingham Palace, and the British Museum.

Britain's Prince William opened the event. Although he didn't make a speech, William, 25, who is second in line to the throne and who has never been a Scout, toured the camp site and mingled politely with the Scouts, accepting dozens of neckerchiefs as gifts.

The international jamboree happens once every four years and this year's theme is "One World, One Promise."

The jamboree features traditional adventures such as days of water sports, community service, and outdoor challenges such as rock climbing, as well as everything from evening discos to workshops on climate change.

Goodwin said he was glad the boys were making friends.

"It doesn't hurt to have international connections," he said.

If nothing else, the jamboree offered the Scouts a valuable lesson in logistics.

On 574 acres of parkland, a virtual city has been erected for the jamboree, complete with a tented church, mosque, temples, synagogue, a hospital, grocery stores, Internet kiosks, and restaurants such as the Czech Lion, which advertised Czech beer, Czech lemonades, and Czech specialties.

Lighting, plumbing, and flagpoles all have been installed.

And then there are the food provisions.

Over 12 days, organizers expect the Scouts to consume 60 tons of apples while boiling 800,000 eggs.

"Just imagine that we started with an empty piece of ground and we built it up for three weeks and then it will all be torn down again so that there's not a trace left," said Virgil Reed, a Cincinnati resident and one of the Boy Scouts of America's national contingent of volunteers.

The sheer magnitude of the jamboree — eight years in the making — is a sure sign of scouting's resurgence around the world in the last few years. Today there are 28 million Scouts with about 1 million Boy Scouts in the United States.

In recent years, Scout troops have tried to make scouting more relevant. Instead of picking up proficiency badges for tying knots or making fires, Scouts today can earn badges for more "modern" skills such as skateboarding and public relations.

The efforts have paid off. This week's jamboree is 2,000 times bigger than the original camping excursion for 20 boys organized on Brownsea Island, England, by Baden-Powell in 1907.

Baden-Powell, a celebrated silver-mustachioed British general, founded the scouting movement in an effort to boost boys' physical and mental stamina.

Thanks to his help in securing the first real British triumph in the Boer War in Africa, Baden-Powell was a hero among the British public at the turn of the century.

A colorful character, he warned that boys of a certain age were in danger of succumbing to "girlitis" and he implored Scouts to be the epitome of Edwardian-style manliness.

His book "Scouting for Boys" remains the fourth best-selling book of all time behind the Bible, the Quran and Mao Tse-tung's Little Red Book.

Baden-Powell, who helped his sister, Agnes, establish the Girl Guides — precursor to the Girl Scouts — in 1910, died in 1941 at the age of 83.

Bill Cockcroft, director of the jamboree, said Scouts are still united by the core values set out by Baden-Powell, such as honesty and respect.

"This event gives us a unique opportunity to demonstrate the ongoing unity of scouting," he said. "Most importantly, it's a place to develop international friendships that can last a lifetime."

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