Anne Collins begins this week’s column by generously sending news of the progress of two of our splendid young Scouting folk. The Boroughbridge Group has a reputation for encouraging and nurturing the Scout Leaders of the future. Two of these young people, both of whom are about to move on to pastures new, have been Young Leaders for some time as well as keen members of Ripon District Explorer Unit. It is nearly three years since Aimee Dubiel and Edward Collins were members of the North East England contingent to the World Scout Jamboree in Thailand, an experience that they shared with Scout Groups locally as well as with their sponsors. This summer, having finished their Sixth Form studies and between working long hours to raise cash for their university careers, both have found time to travel in the name of Scouting. Aimee has been to Russia working on a project to help rebuild an orphanage and Edward, with Kathy Dale, Richard Davill, Stuart Fairburn and Alex Grout, also from Ripon District Explorers, has spent over two weeks in East Anglia, working as part of the Service Team for the large International ‘Eurojam’ Camp held on sites in Essex and Suffolk.

Edward now relates the story of the East Anglian adventure. The saying “success breeds success” is very true. Last summer, a number of our District Explorers found themselves working on the Service Crew at the North Yorkshire County Tookay 4 Camp held at Ripley Castle and proved to be such a great team of workers that, when the County was asked to provide a team for Eurojam this summer, the Team Leader knew exactly where to look!
So, in mid-July, with the car full of camping gear, kayaking kit and almost the kitchen sink, we set off for Essex. As the Service Team was running the water activity base, known as ‘Splash’, at Alton Water near Ipswich, we were thirty miles or so from the main site. Having pitched our base tents, Kathy and I joined the other Yorkies who were responsible for building landing stages and jetties and generally getting the public lake transformed into a Scout Activity Centre for the ten days of the Camp. When it was discovered that I had done a fair bit of kayaking (including the Explorers’ trip to Morocco last year), I found myself reassigned to the Instructor Squad.

On the first day, 21 coaches arrived filled with a thousand scouts ready to get wet, cold and have fun. Being an international event, many spoke no English, so sign language became an essential skill. My groups of ten for each three hour session were eager to learn and worked well, whatever their skill levels at kayaking; others were trying out windsurfing, sailing, canoeing, rafting or bell-boating. This routine was repeated twice a day for eight days until everyone on the Staff was walking around droopy-eyed. We each had a day off to visit the main site at Hylands Park, near Chelmsford, where we found a huge range of activities, from climbing and circus skills to International Zones and ecology projects.

Socialising in the evenings when the Scouts had all gone back to their camps was great fun and having a car there meant we had more scope. Our first day of activities also coincided with my eighteenth birthday which was celebrated in style with presents and cards arriving from home and birthday cake for all the Service team. I even had to blow out the candles!

We were all able to go to the closing ceremony on the main site, a three hour spectacular show with an international and Scouting theme, which was the first opportunity I had to meet my older brother who was a Leader with the Edinburgh contingent. When all the Scouts had left, we had to dismantle our site and restore it to a public area. The whole event was a rehearsal for the next World Scout Jamboree in 2007, which is to be held in Britain to celebrate the Centenary of Scouting and which will be at least five times as large as Eurojam. I hope to be able to be on the Service Team for the Splash Zone then. It’s a great way to spend your holiday!