Yesterday we took part in an event called Starburst. It was an event to work on community service. We were taken off the Jamboree site and we went to a place about a half hour away. We were put into different groups and went to different places.
My group went to a train station that was out of commission but does little tours every Sunday. We were then put into two groups at the train station. One group’s job was to to clean up the train tracks, such as removing scrap metal and pulling up weeds. The other group, which was the group that I was in, had to find every piece of wood we could find without cutting down a tree, from things such as old boxes and doors. We had to take the wood and cut them into pieces with manual saws. We had to cut them into the right size because this wood would be put into the train to burn as fuel.
After we all worked like dogs with the saws for a really long time, one of the staff members at the station came and took out an electric saw and got it done 1-2-3.
We took a lunch break and right after that we took a long walk to a very old church. From what I believe this church was built in the 12th century. After the almost three-mile walk, we realized that we had been going to wrong way the entire time so we went back to the train station and waited for the “coach” to pick us up and go back to the site.
When we got back to the site, me and some of my friends from my troop went to the supermarket on the camp and picked up a few goodies to munch on. Then we were sent on grub duty to pick up dinner and cook it. Then after that went out to look at all of the different subcamps.
After that we came back and called it a night. Tomorrow morning is Scouting Sunrise, which will mark the exact anniversary of the centenary of Scouting and should be an awesome ceremony.
Gregory Gounardes is submitting blog posts from the World Jamboree in England. He is from Troop 715, Brooklyn, N.Y.
My son Nathan is an Eagle Scout from USA-Georgia and he went to the World Jamboree. Starburst for him was not what he was expecting. He was expecting a landscaping, building or conservation project. But, Starburst for him was going to an English Senior Citizens’ Center. They said it was a time for the scouts to dance. They taught the scouts dances and the scouts danced with the older folk for several hours. They had a great time and had great conversations with them all in English. Nathan is 6 feet tall with red hair and has not spent much time in his life learning to dance, but this was a day for dance that he will never forget. This was a good turn for all.
Hi Gegory,
I was the leader that led when we missed the old Church at the Ongar railway. I’ve posted some pics of the startburst projects including ones of when the 900 year old church turned up again,.
we were only 200 yards away from the church at one time, but that’s even less consolation I know.
I know i can’t put web links, but picasso public albums jamboree 07 should find it.
Hope that overall you had as great a jamboree as i did. The joy and fun of worrking on the projects with Participants from all over the world was priceless.
Thanks for not maoning too much. at least you got to see a quaint olde English village as we rushed back!