Jamborees are an amazing part of Scouting and an incredible experience.  These are large gatherings of Scouts from far and wide - attendance at an event can range from 1000 to 50,000 participants.  Scouts participate in a really cool week long themed program, but also discover the fellowship of Scouting and take in the sights, culture, and people of new areas of the country, continent or world. 

Last summer, we had 11 Scouts and 5 leaders embark on a 15 day adventure to Scotia Jamb (SJ) on Cape Breton Island.  Words can't describe the time we had.  "The time of our life" is a clichéd expression but best sums it up.  I have condensed the several thousand photos into about a gallery of 80 that gives a snapshot of the trip.  Marc C has also made a short video.  Please check it out.

The big question from everyone is "when's the next one?" :-)  Well coming up in summer of 2011 is the Pacific Jamboree at Camp Byng in British Columbia.  For those of you in my era that grew up watching The Beachcombers, this oceanfront camp is a few miles down the road from Molly's Reach - very nice location.  The camp runs from July 9-16 and we would likely take a week before or after to do some touring making it a 2 week trip.  From the SJ photos you can see some of the local activities we did in Cape Breton - it was really great.

Cost for such a trip is really a best guess at the moment until more details come out for the Jamboree and until plans get a little more solid.  If we look at Scotia Jamb, the actual cost incurred per person was $1500 (travel, jamboree, food, lodging, tours, etc)  With Troop fundraising, the trip fee to the participants was brought down to $900/person.  The $900 was reduced further on an individual basis through the popcorn sales.  We actually had a couple of Scouts who brought their cost of the trip down to $0 out of pocket with strong popcorn sales.  It can be done. :-)

For a trip of this scale, we would really

like to start the ball rolling in the next while

and have a good jump on things before

the summer break. 

Trying to do it all in 9 months

for SJ was just too much.

For PCJ, a parent committee

will be created and coming up

with some fun and amazing ways

to raise funds to help these Scouts.

In the next year, before their trip, they have a few

more activities coming up. See if any of them interest your fancy to help out!