Logistics Extraordinaire! - Day 1 – Monday July 15, 2013

Wake up call at 5:30 am was followed with a hearty buffet breakfast at Concord University. The five-bus caravan was on the road at 7:30 am according to schedule. In keeping with BSA’s stringent requirements for physical fitness at the new Summit Bechtel Reserve high adventure facility, the check-in process resulted in close examination of the physical examination forms of 16 of the 40 troop members. Due to the advanced preparedness by the families and Troop leaders, we were able to relatively quickly prosecute check-in which resulted in our arrival to our designated camp site by 11 am. The boys quickly attacked three pallets which contained all of their troop camping equipment: tents, cots, rain flies, picnic tables, stoves, kitchen equipment and utensils and finished construction of their camp by early afternoon in the scorching July severe clear blue sky sunshine. Hydration was certainly the order of the day.

The Scouts christened their new kitchen and camp with a Scout-prepared barbecue chicken and corn dinner. The Scouts spent the rest of their day familiarizing themselves with their new camp surrounding and neighbors. Our immediate neighbors are Troops B409 from the jamboree host state of West Virginia and Troop B411 from Atlanta, Georgia. The new approach of mixing Troops from geographically diverse areas encourages Scouts to broaden their cultural awareness and create new friends. One Scout was thoroughly impressed with his encounter of Scouts from Berlin, Germany.

One needs to takes a moment to think about the planning that goes into the coordination required to ensure that 800 tour buses deliver the Scouts and their adult leaders to the correct campsites along narrow winding roads and remote location. Furthermore, the jamboree location was transformed from a remote wilderness location to West Virginia’s second largest fully functioning city in a matter of hours.  The planning behind this event can only be described as “logistics extraordinaire!”.