Boy Scout Troop One from Logan, Utah (Sponsored by the Logan Lions Club-Trapper Trails Council-Old Ephraim District) arrived July 17 in London, England to participate in their fifth international scouting exchange since 1996 with scouts from Ashford, Kent, England. The 2009 scouting exchange is scheduled from July 16-August 10, and involves six scouts and three adult leaders from Troop One; Scoutmaster Tom Hogan, and Assistant Scoutmasters Randy Martin and Nicholas Major. Troop One is the oldest Boy Scout Troop west of the Mississippi River, and will be celebrating our 100th Anniversary as a scouting unit in March 2010.
(Update: Sunday, August 2 - The Kent International Jamboree 2009 - The Shaws Campsite, Cudham, Sevenoaks, Kent, UK)
“To complete the previous blog (at least the other half of day 3), Jim and Dan along with a few of our accompanying English scouts went to Whitstable, an oceanside area where they did power boating and sailing. Scouts being scouts (or kids being kids) they all just said they had a good time, although Jim said he just hung out on the beach. The rest of the group headed to Faversham for a great day of rafting, kayaking, and canoeing. From a leaders perspective it was a total success, "these boys got so wet there was barely any water left in the lake", reports Scoutmaster Tom Hogan. Not only did the boys have a great day in the water, they slept equally well. We were able to make many new friends along the way, it's funny the number of times we're asked to say a few words just so they can hear our accent, and that's not just a request from girls. All in all, camp life is moving along swimmingly (although sometimes there are some crashing waves). Unfortunately, we didn't get too many good pictures.
The weather was good until mid-day, then it began to mist and then it began to rain - fortunately most of the water activities were about over (the archery course; however, stayed open through most of the deluge). The rain really turned camp into a messy, muddy swamp for a few hours. Speaking of camp, I'll have to mention some of the logistics issues, for 2500 people we at one point had 6 working showers, 3 male and 3 female...now we're up to 9 apiece! Let's just say the queue is often lengthy. Also, there seems to be a recurring issue with the indoor plumbing, but they do get right on it. Occasionally there are (literally) a lot of unhappy campers. Glad I'm not responsible for planning such things.
For our Sub Camp (E - for Environment), today was "Activities Day" which meant that all our Scouts got to participate in all of the onsite activities: go carts, high ropes (a scaffolding and rope apparatus 10 meters above the ground), archery, air rifle, laser tag, lawn sledding, etc. The boys got to do most things and really enjoyed them - except for some reason they almost all passed on the archery, perhaps they had enough of Assistant Scoutmaster Randy and wanted to avoid my station. All except Joshua and RobandAmy (purposely spelled as one word).
Now the Scouts are roaming around the camp - trading badges, chatting up others, and doing a few of the night activities (I think it's Beach night as I've seen several Scouts in grass skirts).
Tomorrow is Sub Camp activities day (I guess are guys will be doing something environmentally related) and it is also Leader Activity Day - so we get to do all of the fun stuff. Tom wants a crack at the go karts and I'm heading for the High Ropes (after my archery shift, of course). I seem to be having problems loading photos from today, I tried to load picture three times, but they don't show up - so I'll try again next time. “
Further updates on Troop One's fifth international scouting exchange will be forthcoming, and for additional information on sites mentioned in this article, please visit:
http://www.kij09.org.uk/
http://www.canterbury.co.uk/thedms.asp?dms=13&venue=3031150
http://www.faversham.org/pages/home.aspx?i_PageID=188
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=faversham,+uk&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=u_p1Su7ZH4KyswP3qKWjAw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1
-Stuart & Ryan Parkinson, Assistant Scoutmasters, Troop One, contributed to this article, with primary coverage provided by Assistant Scoutmaster Randy Martin.