10 - The Review, Weyburn, Saskatchewan, September 4, 2019
Scouts have ‘experience of a lifetime’ at Jamboree
By Greg Nikkel Three members of the 5th Weyburn Scouts, along with leader Allen Klassen, had the “experience of a lifetime” attending the 24th annual World Scout Jamboree over the summer in West Virginia, preceded by a week in Washington, D.C., with scouts from all over world. All of the Canadian Scouts met in D.C. for tours of the U.S. national capital, numbering about 650 with Scouts and leaders, and then from July 22 to Aug. 2, they were at the Jamboree with around 40,000 Scouts and 20,000 staff and day guests on a wild tract of land in West Virginia. This was the fifth largest such gathering for the Scouting movement, with the Jamborees only held once every four years. The Scouts from Wey-
burn were Allen’s daughter Kendry, along with Dominic and Mathew Soles. The week in Washington for the Canadians was a busy one, and Scouts from several other countries also joined in, from Sweden, Finland and Bolivia, among others. The Scouts visited most of the major monuments and museums, including the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, and the Smithsonian museums such as the Museum of Natural History, American History and a spy museum, which was a favourite for many of the Scouts. Kendry loved the spy museum where she got to see the Enigma machine, used for decoding of messages from Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
For Mathew, the Holocaust museum was particularly meaningful, along with the air and space museum. As this summer marked the 50th anniversary of the landing on the moon, a special event was held to celebrate that, including projecting the Apollo rocket onto the side of the Washington Monument. Once the Scouts were at the Jamboree, they were divided up into sub-camps of some 8,000 Scouts in each, and each one had a central gathering place in addition to the main stadium where the opening and closing ceremonies were held, along with a special cultural day. The Jamboree was jointly hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico, with Canada hosting the opening, Mexico took care of the cul-
Local scout zip-lining at the World Jamboree
tural day, and the host U.S. hosted the closing ceremonies. The list of activities was a long one, including whitewater rafting, kayaking, rockclimbing, a shooting range that included the opportunity to shoot black-powder rifles, blacksmithing, BMX biking, skateboarding, rappelling, scuba diving, paddle-boarding and zip-lining, to name just a few. For Kendry, her favourite activity out of all of these was scuba diving, the first time she’s ever tried it, and she hopes she will get to do it again back at home. “I enjoyed the social events,” said Mathew, noting that with badges, jackets and neckers, they could trade with other Scouts from around the world, with tents set up specially to accommo-
Photo — Dominic Soles
Weyburn scout member Dominic Soles, left, enjoyed a moment during a canopy tour via zip-line, along with fellow scout Thomas Ray from the 1st Assiniboia Scouts. The photo was taken on a platform 50 feet up as they zip-lined from tree to tree at the World Scouts Jamboree in West Virginia. This was an activity Dominic particularly enjoyed, doing it three times during his time at the Jamboree.
Weyburn scout tries rappelling at Jamboree
Photo 1147 — Allen Klassen
Kendry Klassen, a member of the Weyburn 5th Scouts, tried out rappelling as one of the many activities available at the World Scouts Jamboree held over the summer in West Virginia. Her favourite activity out of all the many that she tried was scuba diving, and hopes she will get to do that again.
date this. “They had a tent completely for religions, a huge tent,” added Kendry, explaining that every religion represented by Scouts from around the world were able to have a display or information table in this tent for people to explore and ask questions about. Dominic enjoyed the food court, where every culture had food tents set up to offer dishes from their home land. Allen helped in the Canadian tent, where they offered maple-flavoured dishes for visitors to try out. He also noted he enjoyed the canopy tours, which had zip-lines set up high in the trees, and a person could zip from tree to tree, as opposed to the single long zips, such as one set up over the main stadium. One feature of the large camp was a huge suspension bridge for pedestrians, which had one main path down the middle, and two single-lane paths that were above it. On evenings with events, such as for a concert at the main stadium, there would be thousands of people going across it and it would be bouncing and swaying just from the sheer volume of traffic on it, noted Mathew. In spite of the huge numbers of people, local wildlife could be seen, such as whitetail fawns that Mathew saw, or a small black bear that attracted the attention of many of the campers, added Dominic, who tried warning them to be careful that a mother bear might be nearby. There were photos and video of a black bear that got into a tent and searched through it looking for food, but Allen noted that in spite of occurrences like this, there were no reports of anyone being injured by a wildlife encounter. There were injuries, such as broken arms, legs or sprained ankles, mostly due to the rugged terrain which many young people were unfamiliar with how to walk or climb it. Some of the entertainment that impressed the local Scouts included a band that played on recycled items as instruments, and one evening that used drones to form words and shapes in the sky. Dominic said he was particularly moved by one moment when the drones formed the symbol of the Scouts salute, and all of the estimated 45,000 people in the stadium held up the Scout salute in response.
Landing a fish at the Jamboree
A fireworks and laser show was also very impressive, added Allen, saying with a chuckle, “It was a sensory overload”, as a person didn’t know where to look with so much going on. There was a strong emphasis on the Jamboree being sustainable, with promotions of recycling and reusing, and a four-storey tree house was on display that used solar and wind energy. The Weyburn Scouts were also impressed by the experience of meeting people from so many cultures and learning how that people can really get along together in peace. “Within all that diversity, you realize how you’re all human,” said Dominic, and Mathew added, “It was a global village.” “We weren’t Canadian scouts, we were just scouts,” said Dominic. A former secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon of South Korea, spoke at the opening ceremonies, and said this Jamboree was proof that the world can get along and co-exist. A touch of modern technology was used at this Jamboree, where every Scout and leader was given a Novus, which could automatically pass on contact information to other Scouts when you met them and talked with them, with a GPS built into them. The Scouts had red ones, and the adults had blues one that could only connect with other adults. Dominic said he came home with something like 1,400 contacts with Scouts from around the world, and many lifelong friendships were made. “This was an experience of a lifetime, and the memories you make … you take with you for the rest of your life. It makes you realize that we’re all human, and we can all have such a large impact on life and on society in general,” said Dominic. Mathew added that one leader he talked to said that Scouts and leaders who attend Jamborees come home more mature and changed after every experience. For Kendry, she learned that “no matter how different your culture is, we’re all people.” “The biggest thing for me is to watch the growth that every person has. You see youth at the beginning of the three weeks, and they’re completely different people at the end of that,” added Allen.
Photo 1120 — Allen Klassen
Weyburn scout Mathew Soles held up a small pickerel he caught while fishing at the fly-fishing venue, one of many activities possible at the 24th World Scout Jamboree held over the summer in West Virginia.
Johnston family happy with life one year later Triplets growing, ‘right where they should be’
By Greg Nikkel The year 2018 was highly eventful and tumultuous for the Trevor and Danielle Johnston family of Griffin, but with the family settled into their new home and their triplets growing and developing nicely, life has returned to a normal level of chaos for the busy household. The Johnstons had more drama happen in their lives last summer than most families do in a lifetime, but they have come through that time with the help of family and friends, and even of strangers who wanted to help them out when news headlines went across the country and internationally detailing their ordeals. Their triplets, Jack, Liam and Karlee, were born a year ago in July, and as they were premature had lived under the care of doctors and nurses at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for about a month. While the family was in Regina to get the babies being released from the hospital, their farm home south of Griffin was destroyed by fire, leaving the family of nine homeless. Through the efforts of family and friends, a gofundme page was set up and depots were set up in several locations as the family received an outpouring of household items, clothes and items for the newborn triplets, along with cash donations, to help them through this crisis. The family worked with the insurance company to get their home replaced, and about a week before Christmas they finally were able to move in. “It was a really nice Christmas,” said Danielle. “We didn’t have any furniture, except for a couple of tables and chairs, but it was kind of fun. We all sat on the floor. We were just so thankful to be in a home again.” Sitting on the floor, she played with her triplets, helping Jack as he stood unsteadily on his legs and took a few steps. She helped Liam do the same, and her daughter Kate helped Karlee, who decided it was more fun to swing by her arms than to try walking. “They’re actually right where they’re supposed to be,” said Danielle. “They go through assessments regularly and they’re doing really well.” Karlee was the first of the three to be born, and she was born at home on July 16 while the ambulance was on the way out to the farm. Danielle had to perform CPR on Karlee on the floor of her bathroom while experiencing contractions, and once Danielle and Karlee were transported to hospital, Liam and Jack were born on July 17, with the boys being identical twins. “They were so tiny,” said Danielle softly, showing a reporter a video on her phone of baby Karlee in the
NICU, noting that Karlee is toughest one of the three, and helps keep her brothers in line at times. “After we got the kids out of the hospital, we were pretty much in survival mode. My main focus was to look after everybody and make sure everybody was taken care of. With newborn triplets and the others, it was all about the kids,” said Danielle. She noted there were a lot of people behind the scenes helping her out, including her mom and friends, as she and Trevor were busy working with the insurance company to get a new house to live in. “So many people came and helped us, it was humbling and amazing. You can’t really explain in words what a beautiful thing that was. It was very special and something that I’ll never forget,” she said, adding a lot of people stopped in with food or to help out around the house as she took care of the triplets. “It was unbelievable how people were just so willing to help in any way possible, even helping to cook meals, which was great because I was nursing three babies,” said Danielle. A Facebook page Danielle is on, for families of multiple children (with triplets or more), has many members who live in cities and have no concept of the challenges she faces living on a farm in a rural community. Now, with the triplets doing well as they grow and are learning how to walk, her mom comes in to help once in a while, and her children help out a lot as well, with son Dillon and daughter Kate both lending her a hand, and even her younger sons helping out a bit. An illustration of the family’s love was shown when a photographer had the three babies in high chairs in a row for a photo. Their older siblings stood behind him with Danielle and sang the “Baby Shark” song, making the triplets smile and bounce in their chairs, as they love that song. Dillon is starting Grade 11 at the Weyburn Comp, while Kate is in Grade 5 and Sam is in Grade 2, both at Queen Elizabeth School. Son Luke is four, so it will be another year before he’s able to go to school. “People say my life must be really hard, but it’s not. The kids are not a burden, they’re a blessing,” said Danielle. “They’re really very special. It’s like it’s meant to be. … It’s so beautiful when they’re all together.” She noted she was especially thankful for her kids lately, as her father passed away, followed shortly after by her best friend, and she leaned on them for support a lot during this time. “If I didn’t have my kids, I don’t know how I would’ve made it,” she said.
Newborn triplets in the NICU
Photo 0277 — Danielle Johnston
The Johnston triplets, Jack, Liam and Karlee, rested together as they were cared for in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit a year ago after being born at 32 weeks gestation to Danielle and Trevor Johnston. Karlee was born first at home, on July 16, and her brothers were born on July 17 at the hospital, where they stayed for about a month until they were ready to go be with their family.
One-year-old triplets enjoy corn on the cob
Playing with little sister
Review Photo 4877 — Greg Nikkel
Oldest brother Dillon Johnston held his youngest sister, Karlee, as she played with her stuffed puppy, which she calls “Bobo”, as they relaxed together on the couch at home on Sunday.
Big sis helping little sis Three Johnston kids and their cats
Review Photo 4831 — Greg Nikkel
Jack, Liam and Karlee Johnston enjoyed chewing on corn on the cob at home on Sunday afternoon. The triplets are healthy and growing, and are just learning how to walk as they enjoy time with mom, Danielle, their dad and four siblings at their farm home south of Griffin.
Review Photo 4904 — Greg Nikkel
Three of the Johnston children hold their cats, which are squirming to make their escape, at their farm home on Sunday. From left are Luke with his cat Steve, Samuel with Francine, and Kate with her cat Mimmie. Luke has one year to go before he starts school, while Samuel is in Grade 2 and Kate is in Grade 5, at Queen Elizabeth School.
Review Photo 4894 — Greg Nikkel
Kate Johnston helped her baby sister Karlee with learning how to walk, as they played on Sunday afternoon. Kate is 10, going into Grade 5 at Queen Elizabeth School, and Karlee just turned one year old on July 16. She was the first of the triplets to be born at 32 weeks, and the three of them are where they should be developmentally.