Monday afternoon was a busy time for the guest hospitality team here at EIJ 2024, who are tasked with taking care of the various guests who come to visit our temporary village.
But one guest was important enough that our camp chiefs decided to give him a personalised tour – Carl Hankinson, the UK Chief Volunteer for Scouts.
With over 30 years of experience volunteering with Scouts, including a role as UK Contingent leader to the 12th World Scout Moot in Taiwan, Carl is no stranger to Jamborees large or small. But EIJ has something to make it truly stand out: our close partnership with Girlguiding.
It was as we toured the activity zones on the outskirts of the site, in between meeting Scouts from Kenya and Ukraine, that the conversation turned to how we here at EIJ make it all work. We are, after all, essentially the same organisation, with the same overall goals. We even have the same founder in Robert Baden-Powell.
Paul’s answer? “You just have to make it work. If you want it to happen, it will.”
And, indeed, they did. Karen echoed this sentiment with “You have to be a role model. We do it this way because we want to do it.”
It wasn’t an easy process – the Jamboree exec reports to both organisations and we make sure to obey regulations from both Scouts and Guides as well. And that’s with good reason – hosting a Jamboree comes with significant risk for both Scouts and Guides. But it all came together thanks to our volunteers “we are a volunteer-led movement, week in, week out.”
As we continued on our journey, we came across one of the other VIPs on tour that day: Dwayne Fields, an ambassador for Scouts.
As they interacted with the young people and the volunteers that came along to see them (and get a few selfies) I could only wonder what job they would like to take on, if they were to volunteer here at EIJ. Would they choose to work in the shop? On stage? Or would they prefer to run an activity?
“I think I would join the bog squad, or do the bins” Carl replied after a few moments “I would want to be able to explore the site. But I’d also love to bring along my old Scout troop”.
Dwayne was thinking along similar lines “it would have to be a job that moves around – I would like to tell the story of the Jamboree”.
Personally, it sounds like Dwayne would be a perfect candidate to apply for a position here with The River Reader…