UNIT MEMBERS VISIT WORLD CONTINGENT HEADS
Amy was recently invited to Gilwell Park to meet the heads of contingent of each nation attending the World Scout Jamboree. What a priviledge! Amy tells the story...
I arrived home from school on Thursday to find a jumbled message about a world contingent leaders meeting at Gilwell on Friday night. Of course I agreed to go to the event even though I hadn’t really got a clue what I’d agreed to…..
On arrival at Chingford station in the Friday night we I was greeted by two German and one Malaysian scout leaders; who assumed because I was in scout uniform I was there to collect them
Gilwell seemed remarkably empty and the grass had almost recovered from the aftermath of Winter Camp. As I made my way towards reception I was greeted by many international leaders all wearing colourful and exciting uniforms. The reception in the international centre was a hive of excitement and full of scour leaders chattering away in countless languages.
I reported to Fozzy and the other guys on the media team whom I had first met on the YSP (young spokes person) course back in November. I was promptly introduced to Bill Cockcroft (jamboree organiser).
Fozzy and I retired to the quiet of the media room with its spectacular wall of wonderfulness. This was a wall adorned with media clippings about scouting in 2007 that the media team had been responsible for. It was here I met up with Tom the other lucky YSP person who had been enrolled for our mystery talk.
After coffee and a briefing we brainstormed ideas for what would be going into our speech. The speech had to be about our aspirations for the Jamboree. We interweaved our personal experiences of life leading up to the Jamboree with international stories such as the Serbians walking a mind blowing 2007 km from Serbia to Essex! Our speech was not scripted we just had a list of a few key ideas.
We were then fed and watered in the White House restaurant ; which was full of Scout leaders from all over the world all eating a traditional English meal; the humble fish and chips!
After dinner we were whisked off for a photo shoot with the chairman for Visit Britain. As we stood in front of the corporate jamboree banner we were bombarded with camera flashes. ‘This is what its like to be famous we thought.’ Various internationals came and had there photos taken with us. The most memorable being a very friendly leader from Lebanon.
We were whisked off behind a screen for a last minute practise. However the Swiss photographer found us and was snapping away making us laugh and helping calm our nerves.
The hall gradually began to fill up. The cacophony of international chatter was scattered by a booming voice in French asking if anyone required a translation. Then the conference began.
The first speaker was Bill Cockcroft introducing how fantastic the jamboree was going to be and the confirmed number; that is now over 40,000 scouts. There was also a ‘live’ link to the world scout conference in Hong Kong.
Next up was Aiden introducing all of the 3 letter acronym teams (JMT etc) who are putting all this hard work in behind the scenes preparing for the jamboree. It was really interesting to find just how many people are involved in the jamboree planning.
Next up was Tom and I. Our moment had come. Our speech on our aspirations went really well and flowed perfectly and we managed to get all of the key phrases into it. The final part of our speech was to say thank you for all the hard work everyone has put into the jamboree. We were met with a huge applause; such an amazing feeling.
Out in the foyer we were congratulated by everyone. We both felt so proud to have represented UK Scouting in such a positive manor. Talking infront of all those people was also a huge achievement for myself.
Sadly next was time for goodbyes. I’d just like to say thank you to the media team for looking after us so well and giving me this fantastic opportunity to talk about something I love. Scouting.