22nd World Scout Jamboree.
Five Knutsford Explorer Scouts have gained memories to last a lifetime from the 22nd World Scout Jamboree.
Emily Lunnon, Andy Frain, James Branham, Caitlin Rowlands and David Jones joined Scouts from more than 150 countries at the event in Sweden.
All five pooled their fundraising efforts to raise £2,000 each over two years in order to make the trip.
In total more than 39,000 Scouts from across the globe attended to participate in activities designed to help them think about the world around them and, importantly, make friends with people from a host of different cultures and backgrounds.
“It felt like you were living in a global village,” said Emily, (16).
“Our favourite activity in the evening was simply walking around talking to people from different parts of the world.”
The Explorers had a couple of days in Denmark before travelling to Sweden, and began to get a feel for the size of the event even before arriving at the Jamboree site.
“We were in Copenhagen with the 4,000 UK Scouts and as we were visiting the Tivoli Gardens theme park we started to see Scouts from places like Australia and Holland and that’s when `Jamboree fever’ began to kick in.
“Before we left for Sweden we had a massive send-off party with Alphabeat headlining who are very, very big over there and that was really amazing.”
When the UK Scouts reached the Jamboree site in Rinkaby, near Kristianstad, they were one of the first to arrive.
“It was a little bit surreal because it was before a lot of the tents had gone up, but once other people got on site and the camps were built it seemed to get much bigger and more colourful.”
Six programme zones gave the Explorers plenty to keep them occupied during the day – with activities ranging from the team building zone, ‘Quest’, to the more reflective ‘Dream’. There were also activities run by countries within their own sub-camps.
“We tried to get round as much as we could, but there was just so much that it was impossible to try it all. I’ve brought home a lot of scarves and badges I’ve swapped with people from other countries to show my own group and the group where I’m a Young Leader to hopefully inspire them to go to a Jamboree in the future.”
The next World Scout Jamboree is scheduled to be in Japan in 2015 where these Explorer Scouts will be eligible to attend as members of the International Service Team.
“The Jamboree will stay all of us for the rest of our lives and attending as a member of IST gives us the chance to give future Scouts the same global adventure that we have experienced.”
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