Go Jamboree friends at D-weekend
This weekend was D-weekend. Meaning Distribution weekend, not in anyway related to the D-Day of World War 2. Although the logistical nightmare it must have presented to the UK Contingent Management and Support teams must have been similar.
Unit Leaders and IST arrived at Gilwell Park from Friday ‘til sometime Sunday. The general atmosphere reflected the excitement, nerves, expectation and adrenaline felt by everyone over the course of the weekend as they collected kit, catch up with old friends, made new ones and put names to faces.
Go Jamboree! was present over the weekend and various members were found beneath our flag, or the collapsing dining shelter, depending on who you asked. A Hello and Welcome was offered to everyone who came over and even those passing by!
The Mod Team didn’t really expect that many people to join us but, by the end of the Saturday many Go-Jammers and random wanderers by ended up camping with us. It was a brilliant to meet the people behind the avatars, finding out what everyone was really like in real life and meeting potential members along the way.
The IST and Unit Leader dinner left some things to be desired, (maybe we were practicing a British tradition of queuing in preparation for the Jamboree?) queuing at a Burger van is a far cry from chumming it out in a huge mess tent together. The IST party was amazing (after yet another queue for the bar that is) and widely enjoyed by everyone, from the excellent band who played during the course of the night to the rowdy selection of camp fire songs towards sung on different tables towards the end.
Kit collection for IST occurred on Sunday morning with more queuing into The Lid, which was converted into some kind of giant Scouting Argos, complete with collection desks and hordes of runners collecting kit from boxes around The Lid. This could only have been topped by how full of Jamboree kit it was, before being given out to Unit Leaders the day before.
All in all a great weekend – The Jamboree Starts here!
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