October 18, 2019 by sam881

My World Jamboree 2019

This summer I joined the Dutch contingent of the World Scout Jamboree (WSJ) as an International Service Team member. The WSJ is the biggest scouting gathering in the world at which more than 40.000 people from over 150 different countries come together to enjoy what scouting has to offer. It is held every 4 years, each time in a different country. On this occasion, it was held at the BSA Sumit Betchel reserve in West-Virginia, United States of America. My responsibility before and during the event was managing a team of rapid response maintenance volunteers, whose job it was to be a “first responder” when something was broken or causing problems. I don’t think I’ll ever see as many broken and blocked toilets and showers in a week as I have during the jamboree. That said, it was enormous fun helping to deliver our service and being involved in the experience of a lifetime for the 30.000 youth participants (14-18 years old) who were there. Together with my team members, the other rapid response teams, the maintenance team’s, suppliers and Sumit staff we quickly and properly fixed problems as they arose ensuring a smooth jamboree experience for all the other participants and staff.