OK, last post. I am pleased to report that my computer, pronounced dead by the Jamboree IT guys, has apparently resurrected itself. Hallelujah! Me thinks it was a victim of heat stroke. I am, needless to say, pleased that I don't have to add a new computer to my list of Jambo expenses.

It was a long drive home to NW Arkansas, but what a wonderful experience. Your decision to send your sons on this journey was a good one and one they will always remember and treasure. Blessings to all! Until next time....farewell!

So much to do!

I have spent a few hours most days out and about checking out all the Jamboree action. I have not come close to hitting EVERYTHING, but I have certainly seen enough to be impressed with the vast and varied activities available to the boys. Most impressive to me is the quality of instruction at the merit badge and activity areas. Taught by adults, here scouts have a chance to really learn about things that interest them from caring, dedicated, professionals in their field.

Today I visited the Conservation Area. It is huge and full of well done, hands-on displays from the Game and Fish, US Forest Service, Corps of Engineers, and waaaay more. I crawled through a cave and learned about bats; met some indigenous reptiles; played the engineer as I guided a boat through a lock and dam; talked to a paleontologist about his dinosaur bones; panned for gold; learned about endangered and invasive species; identified the features of good and bad Leave No Trace campsites; watched boys crawl through sewer pipes as if they were grease; learned about erosion with a demonstration model, among other things. As you can tell, I was pretty fascinated with the raptors that were tethered there.

I did a little shotgun shooting and was very impressed with their set up. At the range I visited they were shooting 12 gauge shot guns at sporting clays (there are four additional 20 gauge ranges). The range is set up to service 5 sets of scouts per coach, 10 at a time. Yes, 50 shooters at a time. In two days they had 1400 scouts through that one range, 10 shots each. They get a 20 minute safety lesson then they shoot clays from three different directions, both singles and doubles. Very fun and not impossible even for beginners like me!

Just another 36 hours or so before the troops leave and another 42 until the majority of the staff will gone. Tomorrow many troops will move in and load their trailers and after 4pm, the staff will start to break down program areas. Staff are trading patches and exchanging business cards and reflecting on the week. In the troop camps, the leaders are holding meetings and letting their scouts know what tomorrow will hold as they prepare to leave.

Tonight the staff had their celebration dinner -- steak, fresh sweet corn and potatoes with live music -- prepared by our awesome dining hall staff. Staff patches and Southern Region belt buckles were distributed as thank you gifts and many kind words were spoken. We're not quite ready to leave, but we are thinking about it. Hopefully there will be another post tomorrow...we'll see if I can get on Vance's computer again. If not, I hope you have enjoyed the blog and a glimpse of the Jambo. It has been fun and I would staff again in a heartbeat! Goodnight!

Readers, this post is from Jordan Davis, a Hometown News correspondent from Fort Smith, AR and part of the Westark Area Council contingent. I thought it might be nice to have a scout's perspective on Jamboree. Enjoy!

From Jordan:

Up in Fort A.P. Hill, VA is where we are at this 2010 National Scout Jamboree. I'm enjoying this chance to connect to you all back home from a first-person point-of-view, much different from my edited articles in the newspaper back home in Fort Smith.
From this scout perspective, I'd like to say that I'm having an awesome time as a scout here, for many reasons. I don't want to write a 1000-word essay here, but just to explain several of the things going on.
Merit Badge Midway, for one, is a 'midway' that consists of almost all the available merit badges in Boy Scouts. I'm currently working on the Railroading badge, while several of my other buddies are participating in things like Dentistry, Crime Prevention, Metalwork, Pioneering, Golf, and so much more. This is a great place for us scouts to work on our required and non-required badges to get us up to the rank of Eagle!
When we're not there, we could be at a varitey of other places, including (but certainly not limited to) any of the three given action centers, where trap shooting and other gun activities, swimming and snorkling, and patch trading are big things. There are plenty of vendors available for a quick snack while the boys are in the centers looking at things set up by organizations like the Army National Guard.
When we're done with the day and are tired and worn out, we head back to camp to prepare dinners to eat, all of which are more than sufficient. I'd have to say my favorite, most interesting dinner would be a few nights ago when it was Iron Chef Night, and we were given ingredients like Mac-and-Cheese and Spam and things to make a salad. Each night is very interesting, and I'm so glad our Spam-and-Cheese meal turned out well!
This doesn't even touch base of all the exciting things going on here- things like the Technology Quest, where lots of new technological and robotic things are available to work and play with.
I must put in for my position, one of the reasons of why I get this laid-back and special opportunity to blog from a first-person point-of-view, being a Hometown News Correspondent. Perhaps you've seen my two articles in the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith? When we toured Washington, D.C. prior to the jamboree, four of the boys from our jamboree troop got the special opportunity to place a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. My second story was about the amazing new Scout stamp that was unveiled just a few days ago, which I would recommend all of you to get at your local post office!
Enough of my commerializing my position though. In additon, an exciting thing that is hot at the jamboree is the Patch of the Day, of which there are only 2010 made each day for the entire jamboree, which makes them extraordinarily special and valuable to collect.
And I must add one last thing: The Shining Light Across America event last night, a.k.a. the Closing Arena Show, was amazing. People like Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs, the world-known band Switchfoot, and many other awesome people made this show happen, and it was a real tear-jerker toward the end. If you missed it, you missed something amazing!
Thanks guys, for reading the blog, and thank you Trish, for letting me take this time to share my point of view!

The camp is still a buzz over Saturday night's incredible "Shining Light Across America" arena show. Our subcamp started walking at 4:15 led by Ryan Lemons and his buglers. The walk this time was a little more leisurely as it was later in the day and everyone was tired from the days activities. But there was still some boisterous song singing and chanting along the way. Since we stepped off so early a non-refrigerated backpack meal was provided. Some troops too more provisions like these guys.






The arena show staff does a great job of providing entertainment for those that show up first at the arena. After our 45 minute walk we settled in and watched Trinidad & Tobagos, a youth steel drum band and the Crazyhorse, SD, Native American dancers. Following that was a pretty crazy thing - first, picture a couple hundred scouts dressed in plastic ponchos. Now seat them in bleachers and unroll a huge see-thru "canvas" of sorts over their heads and give them a paint brush to fill in the pattern and "voila!"
Scouts were encouraged to text the messages to the stage and they appeared on the main center jumbotron. These were everything from "Hi Mom!" to troop greetings and funny comments. Messages were also posted by those watching at home to scouts in the the crowd. Three scouts were aloft in lifts and did some of the announcing from there while overlooking the crowd.

At one point it began to rain slightly and everyone broke out their rain gear. Fortunately it was very light and did not last long.


Then came the countdown and the main show began. Huge fires were lit on the tops of the stage pillars and some awesome pyrotechnics signaled the start of the show in front of 70,000 excited folks in the arena and thousands more watching at home via TV and webcasts. A young scout sounded the kudu horn and Chief Scout Executive Bob Mazucca addressed the crowd and then "rappelled" down to the stage (or so it appeared!). The crowd was pumped!

It wasn't long before the big guest, Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs was brought in riding the bucket of a front end loader. Mike explained his issue with the scout law to be "clean", a tough bill for the self-proclaimed "ambassador of dirt." Then he showed his shirt that said, "A Scout is clean...but not afraid to be dirty." "Get uncomfortable and like it," he told the scouts. He was great fun and we were sad to see him go. (I couldn't find a YouTube link - yet - but here is the link to the pre-video he did http://www.youtube.com/watch?v/=A6jdeAEVdns)

(added later) Here is a link to a video of Rowe's inspirational and very fun message. It starts at 30 seconds in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znobtgls0OY


A video salute to scouting in the movies highlighted scenes from and references to scouting in cinema and a rapper sang a theme song from the movie Scout Camp before the band Switchfoot took the stage. Their music was loud and raucous....and the boys loved it. The finale was patriotic, scoutly and tugged the heart strings of everyone there. Great music, an amazing choreographed fireworks show, more history retrospect, more scouting feel good ---- simply amazing stuff. Here are some highlights of the show...

Here is the final sequence...(the last bit comes with sound - fair warning!)

(added later) Here is a much better, longer, version of the final sequence that you can actually hear the music to -- it was shot much further back than we were. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Pmmt5gjqc

It was nearly 10:45 when the show finished and a jubilant crowd started heading back to camp. Left behind were 182 Arrowmen cleaning up after the amazing rock concert-styled show. They had about 2000 man hours in by the time they were done, finishing up around 1:00 a.m. -- just two and a half hours.

More to come.....