137 scouts from across the Greater London North East (GLNE) Area participated in a selection weekend at Belchamps Campsite, Hockley, Essex, on 25th to 26th November for the World Scout Jamboree in West Virginia, USA in 2019. The weekend, run by GLNE Unit Leader Dean Jeffreys, was full of activities designed to get participants to work together as a team and give the selectors a chance to see who they should take with them in 2 years.
A World Scout Jamboree is a celebration of scouting across the globe and occurs every four years. The young people fortunate enough to be chosen for the experience will meet other scouts from across the globe and share experiences over a period of 3 weeks. This upcoming Jamboree in North America marks the 24th World Scout Jamboree and will be jointly hosted by the scouting associations of Mexico, Canada and the USA.
Dean, who started scouting at age 8 at 1st Elm Park, said that he and the other unit leaders were looking for a “mix of personalities, mix of ages” and that they wouldn’t want everyone to be “all the same”. He also said those who are selected are in for “an amazing 2 year experience” as the process consists of bonding weekends before the actual Jamboree takes place and that the camp would be “big and in your face” with 14 thousand acres of space and up to 40,000 scouts attending.
All 137 scouts who attended the weekend will now wait a week in anticipation to hear back as to whether or not they were selected for this once in a lifetime opportunity.
Daniel Gatty Debden Park High School
