Boy Scouts From Across The Nation Gather For 2005 National Jamboree!
(David Bouchard, BSA Troop 14, Starkville, Jamboree Troop 1520)

As some of you may have heard, the Boy Scouts of America are holding a
national Scouting jamboree for more than 40,000 Scouts and leaders. 
I am David Bouchard reporting from Fort A.P. Hill in Caroline County,
Virginia. We left Columbus on July 24, arrived on July 25 and plan
to leave the Jamboree on August 3 for a two-day trip to Washington D.C.,
and then go to King's Dominion water park for one day. We arrive
home the evening of August 6 after a thirteen-day trip all
together.

The jamboree has many exhibits, including Merit Badge Midway which offers
over one hundred merit badges, rappelling, army exhibits which have at
least sixteen action stations, where you can do different activities to
earn an army patch to put on your uniform. They have a Disability
Awareness exhibit, where you can participate in sports adapted for the
blind such as beeping baseball, basketball, and softball. They have
a blind shooting range where you can shoot a BB gun at a target by having
your sighted partner tell you where to aim the gun. They have a
regular shotgun range where you can shoot clay pigeons.

I went SCUBA diving, which was quite fun because I'd never really been
able to breathe underwater before. I also went rappelling, which
was a great thrill. I live in a sub camp, and my troop number is
1520, the 15 being my sub camp number. There are 20 sub camps in
all. Life isn't all that bad in camp. 

We have our campsite, and a gate way to make it look attractive. We
sleep in canvas wall tents with two to a tent. I am tented with Jim
Giesemann. We're tent mates together, because we are both junior
leaders. I'm the scribe, and he's the quarter master. I
brought my Braille Notetaker to do my duty as scribe, and to write this
story. We are given food which we will heat for supper, a usually
cold breakfast consisting of cereal, a pop tart or pastry, and a
drink. Sometimes we'll have eggs or bacon. Lunch is picked up
from a number of kiosks situated across the jamboree site. They
usually have a sandwich, a fruit, chips, and a drink. But we're
only in camp to eat and sleep and to hang out at night. We're
usually out doing amazing things and getting very hot.

We were supposed to have an Arena show on Wednesday, but due to bad
weather, we've had to postpone it until Sunday. It was
spectacular. President George Bush gave a speech on the values of
Scouting. They had music played by a couple of bands, a skit by
four Scouts that were selected by the Explorers Club to explore different
parts of the world, and a spectacular fireworks show that lasted about 45
minutes. We left at about 11:30 p.m. and didn't get to bed until 1
a.m.

So far, I have been enjoying the jamboree, and hope when the 100th year
anniversary comes around in 2010, there will be many, many people there
from Starkville. Scouting is a great experience, and you get to do
things that you wouldn't be able to do otherwise. Don't forget to
visit the Jamboree web site at

www.bsajamboree.org. You can find more information about the jamboree, and other Scout related activities. See you in 2010!

Photo by Ben Bailey, Troop 14, Starkville