Cambridgeshire Scouts head for South Korea – Updated 27 July 2023
25th World Scout Jamboree – Korea 2023
Best wishes and Bon Voyage to the 45 Explorer Scouts, and 5 Unit Leaders from Cambridgeshire Scouts that fly out to Seoul, Korea this week. There they will join around 40,0000 Scouts from all over the world for the 25th World Scout Jamboree. The Jamboree will be held from Tuesday 01 August to Saturday 12 August 2023 at Saemangeum, North Jeolla, South Korea.
Saemangeum is an estuarine tidal flat on the coast of the Yellow Sea and is a spacious jamboree area, overlooking the sea on one side and a view of the mountains as a backdrop.
It’s been a long journey to get to this stage, going back to the selection weekends, two years ago, in 2021. The 45 places for Cambridgeshire were hotly contested and the training weekends and fund-raising have been both intensive and impressive. The Explorer Scouts and Unit Leaders should all be extremely proud of their achievements.
The World Scout Jamboree only happens once every four years, each time hosted by a different country, with tens of thousands of Scouts attending each one. As we have seen previously in Japan (2015) and USA (2019), Jamborees are an incredible festival of peace, friendship and adventure. Participants will make friends for life with people from over 150 countries, experience different food, language and culture – while learning new skills. It will be the journey of a lifetime.
The 2023 Jamboree, hosted by the Korean Scout Association, is set to be the biggest and most exciting yet, with the hosts inviting participants to ‘Draw Your Dream’. This theme is both relevant and meaningful and expresses the desire of World Scout Movement members to transform the Jamboree into their own festival and grow dreams through the event.
For the UK contingent this translates to ‘Think Big, Dream Wild and Act Together’ towards a sustainable world, where everyone is welcome. Our UK Contingent won’t silently creep round global issues, they’ll be trailblazers for getting young voices heard. Everyone is gonna hear their roar!
The County sends a BIG thank you to the Unit leaders, Chris Mear, Catherine Gregorious, Nessie Cann and Adam Wright (Unit 18, Cambridgeshire), Laura Fagg (Unit 26, Norfolk / Cambridgeshire) and Aidan Joy, who unfortunately had to withdraw from Unit 26.
As well as the Unit leaders, 14 other adult volunteers from Cambridgeshire will join the International Service team at the Jamboree. They will work alongside the organisers to deliver any tasks necessary to make the World Jamboree run smoothly, ensuring it is the best experience for the young people attending.
All the volunteers taking part are busy people with other Scouting roles, careers and families. Regardless, they have displayed brilliant leadership over the past two years motivating and inspiring this group of young people to make the most of their Jamboree experience.
We all look forward to hearing many Korean stories on their return.
Time zone difference
Korea is 8 hours ahead of the UK’s BST (for instance, 9am in UK is 5pm in Korea)
Update 27 July 2023
Unit 18 have arrived in Seoul and are looking forward to their first full day in the city tomorrow (Friday 28/07)
Unit 26 are about to depart London Heathrow on Asiana Airines OZ522 arriving in Seoul at 17.30 local time tomorrow (Friday 28/07); see pictures below
Pictured are:
- Row 1: Unit 26 team shot, Unit 26 Cambridgeshire young people and leader (Laura).
- Row 2: Unit 26 leaders – Aaron, Emma, Emily and Laura.