I’m back from the 100th Anniversary Northern California Jamboree involving 11 councils from across Northern California. There were over 20,000 Cubs, Scouts, Sea Scouts, Venturers, leaders, etc. in attendance. Bob Mazzuca, Chief Scout Executive, attended as did Rick Cronk, chairman of the World Scout Committee, and Steven Bechtel who donated the $50M to purchase the new National Jamboree site. The Scouts had lots to distract them, including 4 climbing walls, mountain boarding, a BMX track, kayaking, scuba, pioneering, geocaching, shooting sports, guitar hero, flight simulator, just to name a few. We couldn’t get the BSA Indy car #19 since it was racing at Long Beach but we did get a real Indy car from Infineon Raceway that the Cub Scouts could climb into and get their picture taken.
Oh, did I mention the memorabilia museum? One whole building was converted into a museum stuffed full of vintage Scouting memorabilia of all types. I displayed my Scouting license plates. I heard that about 4500 people stopped by. Somebody posted a video of the NorCal Jamboree on YouTube and you can see the museum in the last 5 minutes or so. The vinyl sheeting you see is their “theft deterrent system” and I think it worked out well.
The chairman of the Jamboree said this was the largest Scout event in the history of California. When I reminded him of the 1953 National Jamboree, he said it was the largest California Scout event, not the largest Scout event in California. In any case, this will certainly be remembered and talked about for decades to come.
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