SCOUT PRAISES 'COMMUNITY' ON TRIP WITH 6,000 OTHERS
A scout taking part in a European jamboree says the event "gives us a sense of community across the world".
Celia, 17, from Towcester, Northamptonshire, has joined 6,000 scouts in Norway for the Roverway jamboree.
She had to take part in a selection process to get the chance to be part of it.
Among the activities on offer are escape rooms, canoeing and lake swimming.
The first Roverway took place in 2003 and there have been five more since then in Italy, Iceland, Finland, France and the Netherlands.
The Scout Association said the event's aims were "promoting intercultural learning and exchange, and to enable meaningful youth leadership opportunities".
The participants are aged between 16 and 22.
Celia said: "There was a selection day in my area and we did some group activities, and then we got selected based on how well we did in the activities.
"In my group, two people had to be blindfolded and we had to lead them round a course by speaking to them, and we had to carry a mannequin body back using what we had around us and work as a group to do it."
After arriving in Norway, she was taken to woodland near Oslo, where "we did lots of teambuilding activities, we learned about different cultures and basic skills.
"We did first aid, we did an escape room, we went canoeing and there was a lot of lake swimming - gorgeous!"
She has met scouts from Norway, France and Romania as well as a contingent from the neighbouring county of Leicestershire.
She has discovered that some countries make access to Roverway even more challenging: "In Norway, you [have to] become a Rover to come on this, you're not just an explorer scout like we are in England.
"You have to do a difficult few days to test your skills to see if you're worthy."
The 331 UK participants and 100 volunteers will meet together on Friday to swap stories at Sola Beach, and are then off to Copenhagen for three days.
Celia added: "I appreciate scouting a lot more now and how it unites different groups of people from across the world, how we can all share similar things like a love for it.
"It give us a sense of community across the world."
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2024-08-01T05:52:08Z dg43tfdfdgfd