The Connection

A group of boy scouts from McLean and Fairfax Station had the privilege of attending the 2013 National Jamboree—held for the first time ever at the Summit Bechtel Reserve, or “The Summit” in Mount Hope, W. Va. Years of preparation went into making The Summit ready to host 40,000 scouts from all over the U.S. for 10 days. The Summit had a huge variety of activities for scouts to enjoy. These activities included mountain biking, scuba, BMX, rock climbing, shooting sports, and the most popular activity there—the zip-lines! At any given moment the zip-line had up to a 3-hour wait.

Plans for The Summit began in 2007, when the Boy Scouts started looking for a new home for the national Jamboree. They reviewed more than 80 sites in 28 states, and, after two years of looking, they finally selected The Summit in West Virginia to hold the 2013 National Jamboree.

The Summit was made possible by the generous donations of many—both in money and in their time. The biggest benefactor was the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation and the Stephen Becthel Fund. They donated 50 million dollars to help build The Summit grounds. The Summit got its name from the Bechtel donation and there were many statues around the site commemorating the donation.

There was a significant change at this Jamboree over prior ones involving an increased demand of physical capability in order to participate in many activities. The Summit is located in the New River Gorge region of West Virginia and sits on 10,600 acres of forested mountainous land. There was no transportation around The Summit so scouts had to walk to where they needed to be. Most activities took place about a mile away from the base camps, so scouts needed to be able to walk miles in a very mountainous area. The jamboree also required all scouts to participate in a 5-mile hike to “the summit” of the site.

An average day at the Jamboree looked something like this:

• Wake up at 6:30 a.m. (the cooking patrol would wake up about 30 minutes earlier to get the food and start cooking);

• Eat breakfast at 7 a.m. and around 7:30 the cooking patrol would clean up;

• On certain days a whole troop would go as a unit to do certain activities such as the required hike and the technology quest;

• Other days the scouts would have all day to do whatever they wanted;

• Scouts would receive a to-go lunch when they left in the morning and would eat it whenever they wanted;

• Scouts were required to back in camp by 5 p.m. so the cooking patrol could get the food for dinner and start cooking and the rest of the troop could get ready for dinner;

• Dinner would end around 7 p.m. and the scouts had free time until 9:30.

The Summit Bechtel Reserve overall did a fantastic job of hosting the Jamboree. There were some minor inconveniences and some improvements that definitely need to be made before they host the next Jamboree, but overall the staff and management did a great job. All of the scouts attending had a fantastic time—trying new things, making new friends and having a blast trading patches (a sacred tradition of the Jamboree that lives on!).