See the World in West Virginia This Summer

At Disney’s Epcot theme park, you can visit 11 countries in an afternoon. That’s not bad, but this summer another park—the Summit Bechtel Reserve—will offer an even bigger international experience. From July 22 to August 2, 45,000 Scouts and Scouters from over 165 different countries will be there to participate in the 24th World Scout Jamboree.

If you’re not signed up to participate, you can still get a taste of the jamboree experience as a day visitor. “It’s a way to travel around the world in an afternoon,” says Mark Kriebel, the Scouter who is the event’s Chief of Base Camp and Subcamp Operations.

Kriebel, who hails from Endwell, N.Y., will be staffing his third world jamboree. (He previously served as Northeast Region chief for the 20th World Jamboree, held in Thailand in the winter of 2002-2003, and the 23rd World Jamboree, held in Japan in the summer of 2015.) He says that unlike national jamborees, which he has also staffed, world jamborees focus more on interpersonal connections than program activities. That will start in the Summit’s base camps, where troops from around the world will be jumbled together rather than grouped by country or region.

The base camps and most program areas won’t be accessible to day visitors, but there will still be plenty to see in the heart of the jamboree site. Highlights will include Centro Mondial, the event’s main hub; the Global Development Village, where participants will exchange ideas about how to build a better world; and World Point, where Scouts from around the world will show off their talents. If you get hungry, you can stop by one of the International Food Houses to sample the cuisine of Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, or the United Kingdom. And everywhere you go, you’ll see people from countries you’ve never visited—or perhaps never even heard of.

You can’t just show up at the jamboree site, however. Instead, you must purchase a visitor pass online and start your adventure at the nearby J.W. and Hazel Ruby Welcome Center.

Passes cost $55 for those 14 and older and $30 for youths age 6 to 13. (Those under 6 are free.) Visitor days are as follows:

• Wednesday, July 24 (first visitor day): 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Thursday, July 25: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Saturday, July 27: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Sunday, July 28: Noon to 5 p.m.

• Monday, July 29: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Tuesday, July 30: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Wednesday, July 31 (last visitor day): 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Capacity is limited, so officials recommend registering early. Note that the jamboree is closed to visitors on Friday, July 26.

World jamborees are held every four years, but only two have ever been held in North America: the 1967 World Jamboree in Idaho and the 1983 World Jamboree in Alberta, Canada. “It’s been 50 years since the BSA has had a world jamboree,” Kriebel says. “I likely won’t be around for the next one.”

While the jamboree will only last a couple of weeks, the memories will last a lifetime. Kriebel is still in touch with a Tanzanian Scouter he connected with in Thailand, for example. (Their friendship started via email, then transitioned to Facebook.) At the same jamboree, he had lunch with both the King of Sweden and Thailand’s national Scouting commissioner, whose father happened to be president of Kriebel’s other favorite organization, Rotary International. “That was quite a coup from my Rotary experience that I would have met the son of the international president of Rotary at a Scouting event in Thailand,” he says.

It really is a small world after all.