A Scoutmaster's Blog

Yes, the 2013 National Jamboree may now be nothing but a memory, but I just received my set of patches from the Central Minnesota Council’s Jamboree troop. Now I am ready to attend! Well, if I would have gone that is. I almost did not receive a set of this year’s patches but Scoutmaster Mike of our Jamboree troop remembered me and saved me two sets. I now have council patches from the 2001, 2005, 2010, and 2013 National Jamborees.

I have to admit that I do like this year’s patches. The council shoulder patch is quite colorful and features two Boy Scouts canoeing on one of the 10,000 Minnesota lakes. Or it could be one of our many rivers. Or could it be one of the lakes at the Summit? It is hard to tell from the patch. From the deep blue waters, to the bright red canoe, to the green pine trees in the background, and the white smiles on the Scout’s faces, the colors and details really bring out a well designed patch for this year’s event. Although it’s trade value was maybe not as high as the Star Wars or Marvel patches I would still bet it was a well traded patch.

The Naguonabe Lodge put together a fantastic Order of the Arrow two patch set for the Jamboree. Once again it has keep the theme of featuring Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox, as they have for a few Jamborees and National Order of the Arrow Conclaves (NOAC). The two part patch features Paul and Babe parachuting into the Summit, the location of this year’s National Jamboree. The pocket flap patch features the bright red and white parachutes with the feather totem of our lodge. The pocket patch features the two central characters in their harnesses about to land on a… lake?  Paul even wears a Brotherhood Order of the Arrow sash. (I wonder how many yards of material it took to make a sash for him, and where he slept for his ordeal conclave.)

So now I am curious. How many of you who attended this year’s Jamboree took home these patches as part of your collection? What do you think about them? Let us know by writing a comment, and don’t forget to tell us your troop number and what part of the country you claim as yours.

When Troops 1417 and 1418 from the Central Minnesota Council attended the Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree in 2001 we traveled to Virginia and back by chartered bus. Each troop had it own bus, but the busses stayed together. As the scoutmaster of Troop 1417 I enjoyed the three day journey to Virginia because it gave the troop’s members a chance to get to know each other a little better before we arrived at Fort A.P. Hill for the big event.

On the way back home, after the Jambo was over, the air conditioner on our bus broke down. Even with the windows and the roof vents open it did not take long for the temperature to rise in the vehicle. It also did not take long for the Boy Scouts to remove their Jamboree tee shirts as they tried to remain cool. Luckily, the air conditioning was restored for the day day of traveling.

Those Jamboree tee shirts became more meaningful during our last night on the road as we returned home. Someone, I do not remember who, came up with the idea to sign each others shirts, like students do with their yearbooks. The cleaner one of each person’s two tee shirts were laid out over a few tables at the place we were staying. Boy Scouts and the adult leaders moved from shirt to shirt singing their names with a permanent marker. Nearly everyone participated.

I thought it was an excellent idea. That signed shirt had now become a more interesting souvenir of the Jamboree, and a signed one to boot. My shirt immediately became a permanent part of my Jamboree collection once I arrived home. After it was washed, of course.

It would be fun to contact some of those former Scouts to discover if they still have those signed shirts. Did they pack them in a tote with other Jamboree memorabilia, or did they wear them until they became so thin they had to be thrown out? Maybe those young men do not even know were their tee shirts are any longer. After all,that was twelve years ago. Many have been to college during that time and a lot of them are now married with families of their own.

With this year’s Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree now a part of history, it has made me think about the 2001 Jamboree which I attended as the scoutmaster of Central Minnesota Council Troop 1417, one of two troops we sent to Fort A.P. Hill that year. I brought back several things from that event that I just had to pull out of the closet after seeing all the pictures online from this year’s extravaganza.

As I was looking through my tote of Jamboree items, I came across some things that made me wonder if they are still printed for the current Jamboree. One highlight of each day was when the Jamboree Today newspaper arrived at the campsite. This daily paper, printed at the Jamboree, was quickly snatched up by the Boy Scouts and adult leaders. Each issue included color pictures of previous day’s activities, interviews with Scouts and leaders, and information about upcoming events and activities. We all quickly skimmed the photos to see if any of us had made it into the paper. Unfortunately, no one from my troop did, but it was still fun to read the newspaper. Many of the Boy Scouts keep their copy as a memento of the Jamboree.

Another daily bulletin delivered to each camp was the Leader’s Update. It was a short handout for the troop leaders and camp staff featuring all sorts of things important to us, but not necessarily interesting to the youth. If there was something I thought would be of interest to the Scouts I would bring it up to the youth leaders or talk to the troop when we had assembly. I still have nine of the editions, but unfortunately I am missing a couple of them.

So my question to those of you who attended the 2013 Jamboree, did they still print these two publications for the campers and troop leaders? Or were they found online? Or both? Did you keep your copies for a memento and add them to your Jamboree collection?

By the way, if you click or tap on the pictures you will be able to see a larger version of the photo.

I have noticed that when Scouts and adult leaders have written about what they collected at this year’s National Jamboree it always seems to be about the patches. I will admit that patches are cool, and that I collect them myself, but there are plenty of other things to collect at the B.S.A.’s big event. One of those things is pins.

When I attended the 2001 National Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, I was ready to collect patches. I was not prepared to collect pins. I do not know if many council troops brought pins along to trade this year but our troop in 2001 did have a pin to trade. Unfortunately, our pins were pretty tiny. I had several of them though and I was determined to get rid of them for other pins, or something else that might catch my eyes. Like more patches!

As you may notice from my collection, I did not do very well with the pin collection. I did collect various other pins though, including the collection of Garfield the Cub Scout pins and a few of the official 2001 Jamboree pins. Yep, I guess you could say I was not into collecting the pins very much. I think I still have two or three of my council’s pins. Why are the the pins on a National Guard hat? Because the Guard was giving the hats away for free and it made for a great item to keep all the pins collected in one spot.

Did you collect pins at this year’s Jamboree? How many did you come home with? Which ones are the ones you prize the most? Do you have pictures of them posted online somewhere? Let us know.

The 2013 National Jamboree is officially over. The new Summit high adventure base has completed its first real test at handling large groups of Boy Scouts, leaders, and staff. It will be interesting during the next several weeks to see what the reports will read.  Were there problems? How will things change for the next Jamboree? What will remain the same. What will change? And the most important question, did the Scouts have a great time? I would be willing to bet that Bryan at http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org will keep us informed.

I have been reading things online written by both leaders and Scouts who have attended this year’s big event. One thing that impressed me is that many of the council patches have really been outstanding. I wish I would have attended just to collect patches. Granted, I did collect a fair amount when I attended the 2001 National Jamboree, but I think I would have had to bring five times as many patches to trade if I would have attended this year.

Every Jamboree has plenty of stuff to collect, not just patches. There are shirts, pants, towels, neckerchiefs, books, pamphlets, pins, rings, papers, and lots of other miscellaneous stuff. And I would guess there is more to collect now then there was 12 years ago. The picture above shows some of the “official” things I accumulated during the 2001 Jamboree, including a towel, cap, and tee shirt. I even kept a couple shopping bags for good measure.

During the next few articles I thought I would share a few other things I saved from the jamboree, including some special items that are irreplaceable. Stay tuned. Or should I say, plugged in?

More Boy Scout patches for the collection.

I served as the scoutmaster for one of the two troops that the Central Minnesota Council sent to the 2001 National Jamboree. That trip to Fort A.P. Hill was one of the highlights of my Scouting tenure. It also was a reason to begin another Scouting themed collection. (As if I really needed another one.) I began collecting 2001 Jamboree patches and other memorabilia. I have a medium sized tote in the closet filled with stuff from this event.

Today I was lucky enough to score a small collection of 23 council shoulder patches (csp) from this event. I think I already have 3 or 4 of these in the notebook but the others will nicely fill in part of the void in the collection. The doubles may allow me to actually do some trading instead of purchasing. The new ones will create to need to start another binder or get a larger one.

Have you been to a National Jamboree? Did you trade and collect patches? How many do you have in your collection?