Hi, I’m D. Putnam from troop 16 and I went to National jamboree 2023. At jamboree there were many merit badge opportunities, high adventure activities, and leadership teachings.
The activities could have piqued anyone’s interest with their wide variety. My personal favorite was the obstacle courses. I personally ran two of the three. The first one I ran was a two mile course which had us face problems not just with climbing a wall or hopping over a plank but it was more of a challenge of stamina and helped scouts reach new personal achievements. The second one was a quick more obstacle focused one, I found this one to be my favorite with the inclusion of hay bales and bouncy houses. Some of the other activities include shooting sports, rock climbing, zip lining, and mountain biking. The activities were exhausting but fun and challenged our strength and stamina.
While these activities may be thrilling, we’re all here to earn a patch. Jambo had many different merit badge programs and adventures. This allowed scouts to advance even more including a scout named Josiah Richardson who finished his journey to all 138 merit badges. Some other patches you could earn were military patches where at the stations you could earn a totem pole of patches by completing various missions. We also can’t forget our representation tents.The tents were set up to represent women in scouting, scouts of color, and LGBTQIA+ scouts with their various patches. You could also obtain patches through trading. Trading was my favorite pastime, where all you had to do was grab a wagon and your patches and set up next to the campsites.
The activities were iconic but we definitely won’t forget the home atmosphere of our base camps. The camps for scouts were set up in base camps C and D. The 13,000 some odd scouts were then put into sub camps then just camps. Because of our small contingent, the red troop of capital area were put in a camp with girls from Louisiana, Wyoming, Utah, and pennsylvania. We ran the camp like a normal trip to lost pines. The different councils turned into patrols and the camp was turned into a troop. We swapped between cleaning, cooking, and service and we ran the camp like we’ve known each other for years. It honestly felt more like a neighborhood than a camp but instead of lemonade stands we had patch stands. The way the camp was run and the people there made me forget about my home sickness.
Jamboree was an all around fun and thrilling experience that I would recommend to any scouts. The memories were unforgettable and I can’t wait to go back to the summit in 2027.
