GLEN DALE, W.Va. — Boy Scouts these days can earn a merit badge for designing apps for smartphones — but Nathaniel Selfridge, Patrick Ryan and J.J. Reese already know that. They also know plenty of the other things offered up in the annals of scouting, 21st century style.
So do the more than 40,000 other scouts from across the globe — plus 10,000 or so additional volunteers — who are all calling West Virginia home this week during the 2019 World Scout Jamboree. The trio is part of the pack representing north-central West Virginia.
Selfridge, who will enter Trinity Christian School this fall, is a member of Boy Scout Troop 52, as is Ryan, a University High student. Reese, of Howesville, wears the insignia of Troop 84 and goes to Preston County High.
All those scouts, and all those volunteers representing all 50 U.S. states and more than 150 countries, have combined to make their home base in Fayette County the third-largest community in West Virginia — behind Charleston and Huntington.
“I’ve never seen so many scouts from different places in the same place at once,” Selfridge said.
“And all the languages we’re hearing,” Ryan added.
Including languages, Reese said, that are allegedly English.
“The Australians really stand out for me,” he said. “And they’re the friendliest.”
The Bechtel Summit, the home of the Jamboree, is about as scouting-friendly as it gets. It’s a 10,000-acre expanse in the rugged, ravine-slashed area near the New River Gorge that boasts a zip-line and other amenities for the merit badge set.
The melting pot in the mountains will be encamped through Friday, the last day of the international gathering. Besides all the activities, scouts have already locked arms and lifted voices to give “Country Roads” and it’s “Almost Heaven” opening lyric an international singalong flair.
“Unlock a New World,” is theme of the gathering, but the participants in West Virginia also got an out-of-this-world experience last week. The same technology behind smartphones made it possible. Astronaut Andrew Morgan addressed the gathering from the International Space Station. When he isn’t rocketing from launch pads, Morgan is a scout leader in Texas.
