CLICK HERE TO HAVE YOUR RECYCLING PICKED UP AT YOUR DOOR!
Europe 2015: Adventure of a Lifetime! 
Europe 2015: Our 1,500km Journey Through History Europe 2015: Sponsorship Europe 2015: Sponsor Hall of Fame
Scouts Recycle Initiative 2013 Canadian Jamboree
Europe 2015: Adventure of a Lifetime!
After an incredible experience at the 2013 Canadian Jamboree in Sylvan Lake Alberta, our Scouts have started to dream big. Scouting is a youth led movement, and the youth have decided our next big adventure will be to Europe to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of World War I. Our 18 day adventure will take us through France, Belgium and the Netherlands allowing our youth to experience all the significant battlefields and memorials along the way. Instead of just reading about history in school, our Scouts and Venturer Scouts will be LIVING history where it really happened! Our trip concludes with the Haarlem Jamborette, which is the 10-day National Jamboree for the Netherlands.
Tentative Trip Details
On July 20, 2015, we will be landing in Paris, France and meeting our highway coach at the airport. We will be spending a full day in one of the most famous cities on Earth, taking in all the incredible sights and unique Parisian culture. Our real adventure begins on the second day when our guided bus tour takes us out to the beaches of Normandy and up the coast to Dieppe. Our Scouts will literally be living history as they walk through the sands at Juno Beach where so many Canadians made the ultimate sacrifice for people they had never met. Day three takes us to Vimy Ridge, where through courage and sacrifice Canada finally achieved international recognition as an independent nation when we took the ridge that was considered un-takable by all our allies. The original trenches are STILL there, and our Scouts can walk the same paths where young Canadian’s fought exactly 100 years before. Later that day we visit the Beaumont-Hamel Memorial where almost the entire Newfoundland Royal Regiment was slaughtered in one of the darkest points in our history. Our Scouts will be able to stand before the giant caribou monument, overlooking the bomb-blasted cratered fields (still preserved from the war) and sing the Ode to Newfoundland as they give thanks and pay their respects to the fallen. Day Four takes us into Belgium to visit some of the bloodiest chapters in human history. In Ypres, Belgium, over 1.5 million people died over a couple weeks to advance the front just five kilometers; truly incredible to think of the scope of loss. To this day the Belgians stop traffic at the Menin Gate in Ypres and perform the “Last Post” ceremony to honour those who died so they could be free – we will be there to see the ceremony first hand. They have done this every single day for nearly 100 years! (except when the Nazi’s occupied Belgium during WWII). Our forth night in Europe will be spend at an incredible Scout reserve located in Central Belgium.
To give the kids (and the adults, lol) an opportunity to settle in and recharge, we will be spending two nights at the Scout reserve. For our free day in Belgium patrols will have the option to relax at camp, go shopping in a nearby traditional Belgian village, rent bicycles and take advantage of Europe’s world class trail network, or visit the nearby adventure park complete with zip-lines, high-ropes course, climbing wall, and more! After our free day in Belgium we head into the Netherlands to Groesbeek to stop at the Dutch Liberation Museum and visit the Canadian Memorial, which is the largest Canadian cemetery in the Netherlands. Even though it was almost 70 years ago that Canadians liberated the villages and town throughout the Netherlands their gratitude is so strong that to this day local school children maintain all the graves of the Canadian soldiers, even bringing fresh flowers to lay on their graves. All across the Netherlands, Canadians are given special treatment, and it will be amazing for the Scouts to experience just how much Canada is loved for the sacrifices of our armed forces in freeing them from the Nazis so long ago. We pay respect and give thanks to our soldiers once a year, whereas in the Netherlands, their thanks is never-ending. After Groesbeek our couch will take us to the small Dutch village of Vught. In Vught the Scouts will have the option to either visit the Herzogenbusch concentration camp or Maurick Castle. From Vught we'll make a stop in the city of 's-Hertogenbosch to get one last taste of city life before spending ten days at the Jamborette.
After an epic 1,500km journey through history, we finally arrive on the outskirts of the famous city of Amsterdam for the “Haarlem Jamborette” (the Netherlands’ Scout Jamboree). All of a sudden the tone of our trip changes overnight and we are catapulted into the thrill of being part of an international Scout Jamboree. We will be with thousands of Scouts from all over Europe in a ten day celebration of Scouting! The Jamborette will feature “out-trips” to local attractions, and we be visiting Amsterdam and also the Hague. The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government and royal family, and is also home to the World Court (which we plan to visit). After touring the scenes of battle, it will bring us full circle by visiting the Peace Palace and see where International Justice is determined and enforced. There are also three major amusement parks in the area, a massive science museum, countless art & history museums, one of the most famous beaches in Europe, etc, etc, etc!
After an incredible two and a half weeks in Europe, we will be flying home from Amsterdam right after the closing ceremonies of the Jamborette. The Scouts will walk away from this trip with experiences that no one they know can even begin to imagine. They will have walked through history, experienced the culture and language in multiple countries, and made friends with Scouts from countries they likely have never even heard of! They will walk the halls of International Justice, play in the sand of the beaches of Normandy, actually see Flanders Fields (where poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row), and sing our National anthem at Vimy Ridge, overlooking the trenches. They will proudly wave the flags of Newfoundland & Labrador throughout our journey, and will sing the Ode to Newfoundland at Beaumont-Hamel, where so many Newfoundlanders paid the ultimate price for freedom.
Our one complaint from the Canadian Jamboree in Alberta last summer is that we did not really have the opportunity to experience Alberta. The Jamboree was incredible, truly incredible, but we could have been anywhere at all and still had the same amount of fun. Jamborees are about the people, not the location. We decided that for future Jamborees we would make sure to spend a few days actually experiencing the location, and as you can see with this itinerary, we will certainly be experiencing Western Europe!
MORE INFORMATION:
2013 Canadian Jamboree in Sylvan Lake Alberta – Best way to appreciate what exactly is involved in a Jamboree is to see what our 10yr-12yr old Scouts experienced in Alberta last summer => http://youtu.be/NBC-3ip5d3M
Power Point presentation from the parent information session (very large file) => www.gfwscouting.ca/Europe2015.ppsx
Text Only version of the presentation => www.gfwscouting.ca/Europe2015.pdf
Tentative Europe Itinerary => www.gfwscouting.ca/EuropeIntineray.pdf
Jamboree Fundraising Rules => www.gfwscouting.ca/Fundraising.pdf
Recycling Details => www.gfwscouting.ca/RecyclingRules.pdf
Only Eligible Scouts & Venturer Scouts Can Attend
In order to attend Europe 2015, a youth MUST:
- Consistently follow the rules established by the Troop/Company, and show respect to Scouters and their patrol leaders
- Consistently obey the Scout Law, live by the Scout promise, adhere to our Troop/Company Code of Conduct and treat other members with consideration, kindness and respect
- I cannot stress the first two points enough! We will not take any youth with us who we cannot trust.
- Be a registered Scout (gr 6-9) or Venturer Scout (gr 10-12) at the time of the trip. That means third year Cub Scouts (gr 5) will need to take advantage of spring registration so they will be Scouts by the trip
- Be “reasonably capable” of everything that will be asked of them during the trip. For the Scouts and Venturer Scouts this will be covered over the course of the program year. For the 3rd year Cubs it will be very important to attend the majority of the linking events with the Scouts to ensure they get the necessary skills
- To attend the Spring expedition camp (weekend camp, late May or early June). This is a trial camp for the Jamboree patrols, and will be challenging. Our mandatory camp for the Canadian Jamboree was a hike to the summit of Hodge Hill (for example).
- Be an active participant in the Scouting program. Although we will not set a minimum number of meetings they must attend nor specific badge requirements, we will use attendance and program participation in the event we have to choose between two youths for the same spot
Please contact us if you have any questions!