Local Scouts Join 36,000 Others

At National Jamboree In Virginia

By Shannon Hicks

The Connecticut Yankee Council Boy Scouts of America (BSA) sent 440 Scouts and leaders to the 2010 National Jamboree last month, which included 22 Boy Scouts and five adults from Newtown, as part of the event that drew participants from across the country. The council began the weekend with a departure ceremony at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport on Friday, July 23, which opened an adventure that moved to Fort AP Hill in Virginia for a ten-day event that coincided with the 100th anniversary of Boy Scouting.

Scouts, leaders, and staff from all 50 states, territories, and foreign countries had the opportunity to live, work, and play together in an atmosphere of Scouting fellowship. The Jamboree officially opened on July 26 and continued to August 4.

“One of the things I found the most interesting was how once we got there, somewhat of a community came to be. After a few days it was like a state, each subcamp a town or city and the way everything functioned, had somewhat of a community feel to it,” said Brandon Capaldo of Troop 270, one of the Newtown Scouts who spent part of his summer break at the Jamboree.

In addition to Brandon, other members of Newtown Troop 270 at the Jamboree were Jack Benedict, Hutch Bermingham, Samuel Boland, Tyler Coleman, Thomas DiLuoffo, Christopher Erikson, Tyler Hanna, Philip Lyon, Douglas Main, Vikram Makayee, Matthew Rosa, Robert Russo, Henry Summ, and Brandon Unger. Accompanying them were Scoutmaster Peter Lubinsky and Alex Lubinsky.

From Newtown Troop 370 was Seth Barrett, Michael Cook, Patrick Milano, Brett Pearce, and Timothy Moore, with adults David Barrett, Ed Wolf, and Nicholas Wolf.

In addition, Tarren Horvath and Alexander Taylor from Troop 70 were at the Jamboree.

Also at the event, as a staff member, was Christine Wolf from Venture Crew 100.

The Jamboree (or Jambo, as many call it) took place on more than 3,000 acres, and offered myriad activities from dawn to dusk. Visitors were generally allowed on site between 9 am and 5 pm, which were also the hours of the program areas, action centers, and exhibits. A USPS post office was also open during those hours, making daily outgoing and incoming mail service available.

For the first time at a national Scout Jamboree, all participants, staff, and visitors also had access to Wi-Fi, thanks to service provided by communications sponsor AT&T. Scouts took advantage of six Connection Zones set up throughout the Jamboree, which allowed them to charge their phones and laptops, get online, and even call home for free. Talk about a new take on “Be Prepared.”

Scouts created their own daily schedules, with opportunities to meet fellow Scouts from across the country as well as guests from Mexico, Japan, Russia, and Sweden.

“You’d be standing in line for something and in front of you would be a kid from Alaska, and behind you would be someone from California,” said Nick Wolf. “It was a great opportunity to meet people from around the world.”

“I met people from Australia and Puerto Rico, people who were involved in Venturing, and we compared and contrasted our uniforms and some of the different traditions we follow,” said Nick’s sister Christine.

Plenty To Do

Daily activities were organized to offer fun, challenge, an opportunity for religious reflections, citizenship, and the international brotherhood of Scouting. Offerings included everything from air-rifle shooting, amateur (ham) radio operating, aquatics, archery, Camp Thunder (a modified “five stand” used at many sporting-clay events where Scouts shot clay pigeons from five different locations), conservation, disabilities awareness, fishing, and Merit Badge Midway to motocross, mountain boarding, pioneering, a rappelling tower, Technology Quest (formerly Arts and Science Expo), and trapshooting.

“I did scuba diving for the first time, and used a shotgun for the first time — after going through a course on safety, and using ear and eye protection,” said Timmy Moore, who also visited Brownsea Island Camp. A historical re-creation of the first Boy Scout Camp conducted by Robert Baden-Powell in 1907 on Brownsea Island off the coast of England, the Jambo presentation included demonstrations, games, and activities conducted by Scouts dressed in period costume.

“I expected that there would be a lot of activities, but not that many,” Brandon Capaldo said. “It was even more than I expected. I figured there would be skills things, but there was also a lot of life skills, including some military based, and that was cool.”

The American Red Cross hosted a world record-breaking CPR & AED (Automated External Defibrillator) certification event, and the Scouts also worked together to set a world record for the largest number of people using a yo-yo at the same time.

“The boys had a freeform schedule,” explained Troop 370 Scoutmaster Dave Barrett. “There was a hope that they would experience a little bit of everything.”

“There definitely wasn’t enough time to do everything,” Hutch Bermingham said.

“I had a squirt gun and I would shoot water at [Scouts] if anyone came back to camp early,” Peter Lubinsky said with a laugh. “The first few days, especially, I told them to get out and do something.”

Even with so many people and activities going on, Newtown’s Boy Scouts all felt the event was very well organized.

“I didn’t expect as many people as there was,” said Tyler Coleman. “I thought it was great.”

BSA estimated there were 36,000 Scouts embedded at Fort AP Hill, plus 4,000 adult leaders and another 4,000 adult volunteers, “give or take a couple hundred,” said Mr Lubinsky, who celebrated his third Jamboree this year. “Everything was very well organized.”

 “Absolutely,” agreed Christine Wolf, who was in Virginia by July 21 to join other Venture Crew members in setting up an exhibition that was very well received by visitors. “Absolutely everybody had a job, they did their job, and it all ran so smoothly. Just the number of Scouts who came through our exhibit [and things were always very calm], or if you needed any help, someone was right there for you. They were very helpful, and very polite.”

Among the events of the Jamboree was public sale of a United States Postal Service 44-cent first class postage stamp that honored Scouting. The Scouting stamp was dedicated during a ceremony on July 27, and Timmy Moore was within the front rows of a press conference that featured Robert Mazzuca, Chief Scout Executive of BSA; 2010 Jamboree Chairman Terry Dunn; and Lieutenant Colonel John Haefner, US Army Fort AP Hill Garrison commander.

Timmy, who will be in the eighth grade class at St Rose School this fall, was on hand for a number of press events because he had arranged back in April to be part of the Jamboree’s Hometown Reporters crew. He was given special credentials that allowed access to a number of areas that many other Scouts could not access, including a press tent with work stations from which the boys could file stories.

In place of a traditional Jamboree closing ceremony, BSA arranged for a major show on Saturday, July 31. Called “Shining Light Across America,” the show featured a video message from President Obama (the honorary president of BSA), guest speakers ranging from BSA Chief Scout Executive Mazzuca and Eagle Scouts Alex Boylan (a winner of CBS-TV’s The Amazing Race ) and Burton Roberts (from Survivor: Pearl Island) to Dirty Jobs host and Ford pitchman Mike Rowe, and a performance by the band Switchfoot.

An estimated 70,000 people attended that show, which filled the base to its capacity and ran for about two and a half hours.

“It felt like a seven-hour ordeal, though,” laughed Hutch Bermingham. “It took so long to get everyone into and then out of the arena.”

“When you were watching it, it was cool though, just to see all the Scouts gathered in there,” added Christine Wolf. “That was the one time that you could really see how many people were involved in Jambo.”

“Shining Light Across America” was open not only to the Scouts at the Jamboree, but also to the public.

“Visitors were encouraged, but then they had to begin turning people away,” said Mr Lubinsky. “The base was absolutely full to capacity.”

“That closing show was amazing,” said Rob Russo. “It was almost like a party, with one part concert and one part speeches.”

“The fireworks display was supposedly the largest ever over a military base,” said Christine. “That was really neat.”

The Unofficial Sport Of Jambo

Of course as with any Boy Scout Jamboree, a large part of Jambo 2010 included earning merit badges and trading patches.

“The big thing at Jamboree is patch trading,” confirmed Timmy Moore, who counted among some of his favorites the Great Southwest Council Looney Toons patch, LA County’s X-Men Wolverine, Gettysburg Historic Walk, and his BSA Hometown News patch. Even his mother, Anbi, received a 100th anniversary patch when she visited him in Virginia.

Timmy also earned some special awards during his time at Jambo, including Leadership and Scout Spirit honors, as well as a National Aviation Merit Badge (“That was a very hard merit badge to get. A lot of people were struggling with it,” he said.)

“Patch trading is the unofficial sport of Jambo,” said Mr Lubinsky.

“It’s like a virus,” laughed Nick Wolf, who brought home four large binders filled with his 2010 acquisitions. “One kid gets a patch, and then everyone else around him wants that one, too.”

Johannes Böhrer, a German Boy Scout who was a guest of the Connecticut Yankee Council, went to Jambo with 100 patches from Germany.

“Everyone wants to trade patches,” he said.

“You have no idea how many kids I had to turn away,” Mr Lubinsky said, referring to the popularity of Johannes’s patches and having to tell others that the supply was gone. “It’s great fun, but occasionally you have to steer them and say ‘You can’t spend your whole day trading. You don’t want to get to the end of Jambo and only have a collection of patches to show for it.”

“It’s like baseball card collecting,” Nick Wolf said as explanation of the popularity of patch collecting and trading. “These patches are unique to each Jambo, and there is a lot of work put into them.”

In addition to their time at Jambo, most Scouts visited areas close to Fort AP Hill before or after attending the Jamboree. Timmy said his group left from Westport following the departure ceremony and headed toward Williamsburg, Va., and then spent Saturday at Busch Gardens. On Sunday they went to Norfolk, Va., and divided their time between the naval base and the Virginia Air & Space Museum.

On Monday, July 26, the Connecticut contingent finally reached Fort AP Hill, arriving around 1 and spending the afternoon exploring their surroundings.

“There were no formal activities yet, but we were allowed to explore,” said Timmy, whose experiences at the Jamboree were well above his expectations.

“I just wanted to check it out,” he said when asked why he decided to attend the event. “I had heard good things about it, and some people I knew were also going. There were so many different activities, different things like shows. It went over my expectations.

While Jamborees are traditionally held every four years, the 2010 event was postponed by one year (the previous Jambo was in 2005) so that BSA could celebrate within its centennial anniversary year. The next Jamboree, according to BSA notes, will be in 2013 at The Summit/Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in Glen Jean, W.Va., which will also become BSA’s permanent home for the National Scout Jamboree.

Visit The Bee’s Facebook photo album that corresponds with this week’s issue date for more photos from The 2010 Boy Scouts of America Jamboree.