2023 Jamboree

 

The National Scout Jamboree is a quadrennial two-week encampment for boys and girls, ages 12-18, in the Scouts BSA program.

Held at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in rural West Virginia, it includes activities such as camping, hiking, fishing, boating, skateboarding, and shooting sports, plus cultural and learning experiences for the thousands of Scouts in attendance. Since 2013, the Minerals Education Coalition has provided a booth at national jamborees, introducing Scouts to the Mining in Society merit badge. The 24th World Scout Jamboree, held at the Summit in 2019, welcomed 40,000+ participants from around the globe and the MEC provided a mining exhibit there as well. 

Our 2023 exhibit was themed "Mining in Our Modern World: Journey to the Middle of Your Mobile." The exhibit emphasized many messages embodied in the Mining in Society merit badge. Most importantly, however, we helped Scouts make a personal, direct connection to the importance of mining to their lives.

The 2023 event was attended by more than 15,000 scouts ages 12-18 from around the country. In total we had 1,950 visitors to our booth and 766 Scouts earned the Mining in Society merit badge.

Thank you to our sponsors CONSOL Energy, WAAIME, Coronado Global Resources, Blackhawk Mining and SME Florida section.

Thank you to the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) and Luck Stone for providing on-site support/co-hosting.

And a big thank you to the following SME members who took time away from their busy lives to travel to West Virginia and volunteer at the booth: Charlie Zimmerman, Edward Wellman, Mitchell Harvey, Nicol Alvarez, David Bremer, Emily Carroll, Andy and Julie Cole, Louis Irwin, Dan O'Connor, Eric Shereda and Kathleen Tew.



 
 

2023 JAMBOREE SPONSORS

For more information on the MEC’s Scouting outreach program, visit MineralsEducationCoalition.org/scouts

MEC continues to support Scouting year round through the Mining in Society merit badge web page. On that page you can learn all your need to know about becoming a Mining in Society merit badge counselor. Then, by completing the Roll Call form, you will be added to our mailing list for MiS merit badge counselors for future communications regarding the merit badge, support materials and your role as a counselor.