Several members of Lehighton Boy Scout Troops 83, Trinity Lutheran Church, Lehighton and 187, St. Matthew Church, Franklin Township; were part of the The National Jamboree to celebrate the 100th Anniversary Celebration of Boy Scouts held recently at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia.

Scouts representing the Lehighton area were, Nicholas Kern, Tyler Helmer, Sam Blose, Devin Frantz, Zach Shiner, Mason Everett, Justin Wingert and Steven Schleicher; leaders, Wade Blose, Michael Everett, Joseph Ahner, Andy Hottenstein; and scoutmaster, Scot Wingert.The Scouts arrived Saturday, July 24, in 108 degree heat and were greeted by a reporter for the local Fredricksburg newspaper, who noticed that they brought along their invention - a cell phone charger - fan. This fun set up did make their tent the envy of the campsite as the heat stayed about 100 degrees.During their stay, the boys visited Fredricksburg, the site of Stonewall Jackson's deathbed, Spotslvania and numerous other historic sites, including a train ride to Washington D.C., and Arlington Cemetery, where they viewed the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.The event included 45,000 Boy Scouts and tens of thousands of visitors at the National Jamboree.They learned that it takes seven tractor trailers to feed the boys lunch at the Jamboree.The boys found the event overwhelming and everyone to be unbelievable friendly.One of the highlights was discovering that the Stephen Bechtel Foundation donated $50 million to the Boy Scouts of America, which was used to purchase 10,600 acres in West Virginia adjacent to National and State Parks.The parcel is destined to be the site of the newest high adventure cam and the permanent site of the National Jamboree. The next Jamboree will be hosted there will be held in 2019.The scouts also learned about the rich history of the City of Richmond, Va. They enjoyed a guided tour, followed by a museum stroll.During the Jamboree, they traded council patches, visited, did some pioneering, and participated in technical and merit badge sites. Each of the 50 states were represented by Scouts along with over 50 countries.On Thursday they were also refreshed by a 10-minute deluge of rain.The Jamboree featured 45,000 scouts in 18,000 tents. The scouts used 750,000 gallons of water during the 10-day event. They were 20,000 catfish and billgills stocked for fishing, and four 100,000 gallon swimming pools were erected to cool off everyone. They were 133,000 visitors.