When 43,000 Boy Scouts Came to Town

Some of you may not know that the Boy Scouts of America is celebrating it's centennial this year. One of the ways they celebrated was by having a parade in downtown Washington, DC. It was the first time since 1937 that the Boy Scouts have had a parade in DC. Here are a few scenes from the parade.

Unfortunately, the huge hanging flag in the picture below got tangled up by the wind and only hung down like this for the very beginning of the parade.

The building behind me is the National Archives.

You can see the clear blue skies in all of these pictures. Believe it or not, about fifteen minutes after the parade ended a summer thunder storm blew in, and it started pouring down rain. Kent and I were safely on the metro before the downpour began.

The parade in DC was the kick-off for the National BSA Jamboree, which was held just 30 miles south of where we live. Kent took a day off work and we went to have a look around.

It was fun to see the displays and how incredibly well-organized the jamboree was. Since the jamboree was local, our newspaper carried a front-page story every day about the jamboree.

Many of the troops had created clever entry ways to their campsite, representing the state or city they were from. The one below was from out west.

Here's Kent with one of his heroes, Lord Baden Powell.

The next two entry ways are from our council, the National Capitol area.

The entry way below was one of the most popular at the jamboree. I know this because it was made by a troop in our community, and there was an article in the paper about it. The facade is an exact replica of the White House.

Below is a picture of the best looking Scout at the entire jamboree!

Kent has been a devoted Scouter for almost our entire marriage. He was called to work with the Boy Scouts when we were newlyweds, and is currently a Den Leader for the Cub Scouts in our ward.

We only spent the morning at the jamboree, but it was fun to experience a small part of such a major BSA event. We've heard and read about the jamborees at Fort AP Hill for many years, and we feel pretty lucky that we were living here when the centennial jamboree was held.