Sisters scouts experience jamboree

Three sets of brothers from Sisters helped celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts this summer at the 2010 National Scout Jamboree in Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia. They returned with tales of trading scout badges, seeing celebrities, visiting historical monuments and living through crazy rain and thunder storms.

Christian and Daniel Hunt, Joe and Ross Grant and Will and Alex Cyrus attended the 10-day event with more than 45,000 other scouts, adult leaders and volunteers. The scouts were also able to visit Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. during their adventures. They were joined by Sisters resident Art Buell, who was volunteering at his fourth celebration and who attended a jamboree as a Boy Scout at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in 1964.

 "My dad went to the first (jamboree) in A.P. Hill, and he had a great time," said 13-year-old Christian Hunt of Steve Hunt's experience at the 1981 event. The 2010 Jamboree was the last time it will take place at A.P. Hill, Christian said.

The boys' days were filled with activities such as kayaking, rappelling, and earning merit badges. One of the highlights for Christian was earning new merit badges, which involved taking classes and accomplishing a variety of tasks. Tents were set up around the facility where scouts could attend classes and learn about different subjects. Christian and his brother Daniel got their badges in aviation and railroading, Christian said.

Daniel Hunt, 12, especially enjoyed the two arena shows which featured fireworks and appearances by Mike Rowe, host of the Dirty Jobs television show; snowboarders Shaun White and Gretchen Bleiler; and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates. Daniel and his brother and their patrol leader got a picture taken with Shaun White, Daniel said.

Ross Grant, 12, also enjoyed the arena shows, but was disappointed that President Barack Obama didn't appear in person. The president did, however, speak via a video presentation. Grant said he also had fun collecting and trading council badges. He thinks he ended up with 40 badges from the different councils that were represented. Scouts from all 50 states as well as other U.S. territories and foreign countries attended. Thirty-six kids and four adults from the Crater Lake Council attended the event, Grant said. The council encompasses 10 counties in central and southern Oregon and northern California.

Getting to the East Coast event took months of planning. The Scouts attended practice campouts and hiking trips with the Crater Lake Council. They had to buy supplies and save money to attend. Two weeks before they left, the scouts packed up their Boy Scout-issued duffle bags, which were big enough to cover the boys, said Grant, and shipped camp stoves, tents and other gear by Federal Express.

The scouts also got to experience East Coast humidity and a couple of lightning storms, Christian Hunt said. The final day, as scouts were packing their tents and gear, a storm hit the army base, and those who didn't have tents up had to scurry to other tents and wait out the rain. Several boys from Buell's area migrated to the commissary tent where he was volunteering. "The boys went home nice and wet," said Buell, who is a unit commissioner for the Fremont District, which covers Central Oregon. "But there was hardly a time you couldn't get those kids to smile."

Ross and his 18-year-old brother, Joe, who recently left Sisters to attend George Fox University, are members of Troop 18 in Bend. Joe went to the celebration as a junior assistant scoutmaster. The Hunt brothers and William Cyrus, 17, and Alex Cyrus, 13, are members of Troop 188 in Sisters.

"I think it's adventurous and fun, and when you grow up it helps to have it (Boy Scouts) on your résumé," Ross Grant said.

Scouts usually attend jamborees every four years. Future jamborees will take place in Glen Jean, West Virginia, at the Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, according to the Boy Scouts of America Web site.