Day 11

Today we got back to our normal schedule. The scouts were busy earning merit badges, doing activities, trading patches and very many other things that encompass the Jamboree experience. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has sponsored a special award called the George Albert Smith Award. Completing the requirements earned a very nice medal. Adults could earn it too. I did complete the requirements and earned the award but they were going to run out of medals so I did not take a medal so that a scout could receive it. I took quite a few pictures of merit badge midway that I am including below.

The boys seem a combination of tired out but not ready to go home. I think that most of them have had a great experience. I believe that most of these young men will take away with them a memory and experience that they will cherish their whole lives. Someday I would like to attend with my own boys. That doesn't exclude the girls either. There are lots of jobs for women too. There are a number of couples in the LDS Relations tent as well as women in virtually all of the other areas too.

Tonight I attended Family Home Evening. There were some fun activities and President Larry Gibson of the General Young Men's Presidency spoke. In case you were wondering I have talked to lots of scouts and scouters over the course of my time here at Jamboree. The scouts only have one more day left. The will spend some of their time tomorrow packing up. They have all sorts of things to take down so that they can leave on Wednesday morning. By early afternoon our little town of about 45,000 will be packed up and mostly gone. We will have probably about 2500 left to finish the tear down and clean up. You can't imagine how much stuff there is to take down and put away or take away as the troops go home.

There are many adults that are busy trading patches. I have traded for a few and will bring home a few choice patches. I have one patch from Utah National Parks which includes Provo and Orem and a couple of patches from Golden Spread that is Sacramento.

In our group we starting packing up some of the computers today. We will get a lot more busy with that tomorrow afternoon then Wednesday we will be in full packing mode until everything is collected and packed ready to ship back. Should be fun!

Well, that about wraps up day 11. Enjoy the pictures that follow. I plan on uploading all of the pictures and movies I have made to Picasa soon.

Pictures from Merit Badge Midway. I read today in the Jamboree Today that they were offering close to 100 different merit badges.











This is one of the concession stands where they sell junk food and sodas. I already mentioned to Ricky and Charlie that 2 Below Zero Shaved Ice from Rexburg, ID is here.


The Scouter that owns this corvette lives in El Paso. I think that I arranged today for him to come to the 100th Anniversary Celebration that the Council is having in October. It is a mini Jamboree type of event over a weekend at Red Bird Airport which is now closed (I think).



This is one of the activity areas called Pioneering




You can't really read the writing on the side of this truck but the man in the yellow is an Eagle Scout that is 93 years old! Holy cow, he may be the oldest living Eagle Scout.


Lastly, I was able to take a picture of a very special patch. There aren't very many people that get their own patch but the young man that was the 2,000,000th Eagle Scout did: