Archive: Around Town

To hear the national news outlets tell it, last week's Boy Scout Jamboree was nothing more than a series of disasters, including the death of four scout leaders from Alaska, scores of cases of heat stroke and cancellations of President Bush's visit. Yet the event was a huge success for the 31,788 scouts, 3,532 leaders and 7,743 staff who attended the ten day event at Fort A.P. Hill in Bowling Green Virginia.

"The Jamboree is so big that the Postal Service assigns it's own zip code," says Mike Coles, one of the two Lansing scout leaders who attended last week. Indeed the 22428 zip code exists for less than a month every four years, and the Jamboree ranks among the top 20 cities in Virginia for the two weeks of its existence. Claiming that address for ten days were leaders Mike Coles and John Comisi (see Dr. Comisi's Jamboree Journal, also in this issue), and six Lansing Boy Scouts, including Joshua Barber, Daniel Comisi, Peter Stammer, Ian Garnett, A. J. Hughes and Michael Coles.

Mike Coles clearly had the time of his life working on the support staff in Sub-Camp 3. His team provided meals for the staff that ran events for the Jamboree, so were a vital element to keep things running smoothly. "Everyone has the same philosophy of helping each other," he said. The teams worked together to make things go better than planned. And if something didn't go as planned everyone pitched in to make it work. One example was a special steak dinner for 150 of the the staff that was not part of the scheduled program. The maintenance team found pieces of chain link fence and blocks to mount them on to make a grill, the commissary team got the food, and Mr. Coles's dining team used burners like turkey fryers to cook corn and potatoes.

Another example was more vital. Four Alaskan leaders were killed when a tent pole they were erecting touched a power line. This resulted in a seven hour power outage. For scouts who have learned camping skills this was not necessarily a disaster, but it was a special problem in the medical tents where several patients were suffering from the heat. A team erected a wooden pallet and stuffed it with straw, then dripped water through it. Using barn fans that someone had hooked up to a generator, this primitive air conditioner lowered the temperature in the medical facility by ten degrees.

Events were so numerous that it was impossible to do everything in the ten day period. They included an obstacle course, air rifle shooting, a bikathlon, pioneering skills training, Ham radio operation, aquatics, and a conservation trail, to name a few. Mr. Coles especially liked the National Forest Service's exhibit in which they put you in charge of managing a forest. At the entrance you are faced with a fork in the path. One route represents letting nature take its course and the other is for managing the forest. He chose "Let Nature take it's course." Soon he came to another fork with the choices to let nature take its course, or sell timber to a sawmill to harvest. At each fork he was faced with the consequences of his choice and another decision to react to it.

His son Michael enjoyed the Buckskin Games activity. "Where else can I go where someone will put an axe in my hand and tell me to throw it at a target?" he exclaimed.

Fort A.P. Hill is a military facility, so there military personnel were staffing it. "They have to apply," said Mr. Coles. They only accept Eagle Scouts." More apply than are accepted, and they wear an Eagle Scout patch on their uniforms to show they were former scouts and top achievers.

A highlight of the Jamboree was President Bush's address. He had originally been scheduled for the opening event, but because of the deaths and weather affecting his transportation he spoke at the closing ceremony instead. "Marine One flew over the crowd at 2000 feet. Everyone saw it," said Mr. Coles. because guests were allowed at this event, around 70,000 people heard the President's speech. It took two hours to get everyone through security.

Mr. Coles noted that the President must have truly wanted to be there, because a President's schedule is so fully booked that when an appearance is canceled it is often not possible to reschedule on short notice. Yet Mr. Bush rescheduled multiple times, finally addressing the cheering crowd of "America's future leaders." Mr. Coles felt that seeing a US President was something the Lansing boys would remember all their lives.

Mr. Coles was exhausted but invigorated by his experience, his first Jamboree. The next one will be five years from now to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts in 2010. He is already planning that he and his son Michael will be there.

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