BY SHAUNA JOHNSON
CHARLESTON — For 14 hours today, hundreds of buses will be leaving Fayette County’s Summit Bechtel Reserve carrying the thousands of participants in the World Scout Jamboree on the first legs of their trips home.
“We’re going to move roughly 44,000 people out of what became one of the largest cities in the state of West Virginia for 10 days,” said Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, West Virginia’s adjutant general leading the West Virginia National Guard.
“That’s a major muscle movement however you look at it.”
Thousands of International Service Team (IST) members, the volunteers who have been working at the Jamboree, will depart on Saturday.
Beginning at 4 a.m. today, buses were scheduled to start rolling at the Summit on a coordinated timeline with oversight from Summit staff along with the Guard, state Division of Highways, State Police and others.
By the end of the day, as many as 800 buses could be en route to other destinations, including airports like Charleston’s Yeager Airport.
“Those buses will be going all different directions to include across the West Virginia Turnpike,” Hoyer said.
“We want to make sure that the last thing that these kids from these 150 countries see going out is a good experience of passing through West Virginia in a safe and expeditious manner.”
The Closing Show for the 24th World Scout Jamboree, which opened on July 22, was scheduled for 8 p.m. Thursday at the AT&T Summit Stadium, bringing together all of the Jamboree participants for a final time.
“We are on center stage right now and we are doing major work for the security of our nation by building relationships and helping the Scouts foster this environment for building relationships,” Hoyer said earlier this week.
The West Virginia event was the first for a World Scout Jamboree in the United States since the 1967 Jamboree in Idaho. The U.S., Canada and Mexico were joint hosted this year.
In 2023, the 25th World Scout Jamboree will be held Saemanguem, South Korea. The Korea Scout Association previously hosted the 17th World Scout Jamboree in 1991.
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