mmg.com.au

Six excited Benalla Scouts and one leader left Benalla last Tuesday to travel 26 hours on a bus to Maryborough in Queensland for the 23rd Australian Scout Jamboree.

The Benalla Scouts — Sophie Heaney, Serena Cheetham, Millie Sammon, James Ridgwell, Zac Mort, James Turner and scout leader Bruce Every joined scouts and leaders from across Australia and the world.

Camping together with 11500 scouts and leaders is only part of the story; there’s also huge range of activities on offer at AJ2013, at the Jamboree site and offsite.

The theme of the Jamboree is Dream it Live It and the goal of the program team is to make every scout’s dreams come to life.

At the Jamboree they will be part of a Jamboree Patrol, just like at their home troop.

As a member of a Jamboree Patrol they will participate in half day onsite activity ‘‘zones’’ and full day offsite activities backed up at night by activities in the night time entertainment precinct.

Each evening, there will be an entertainment precinct, which will be the ‘‘buzz zone’’, with the energy of the site spreading from the main arena, up through the mall to the big top.

As of late last week the group had watched Timomatic at the opening ceremony, as well as Reece Mastin.

Meanwhile, back in the campgrounds, frat tents will cater for scouts who need to relax and slow down, with movies, board games and other low-energy activities.

The object of the Jamboree is to promote teamwork, life skills, mateship, and ingenuity with informal education without any electronic devices, which have all been left at home.

After 10 days of so much fun at AJ2013, they may need to sleep for a week to catch up when they get home.