One hundred years ago today, Sir Robert Baden-Powell started a movement that would eventually grow to more than a million times its original size.
It was a simple eight-day camp-out designed to teach 20 boys some useful skills. It was the birth of Scouting, which now spans the world in 216 countries and has 28 million members.
Scouts in England are hosting 28,000 of their counterparts and 12,000 adult leaders from 150 countries in a World Jamboree, an event that happens every four years.
And if there's a World Jamboree to go to, it's this one, says Brian Harris, a Scout leader from Idaho Falls.
"It doesn't get any bigger than this," he said a week ago, shortly before departing Utah with a contingent of 36 Scouts from Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
Having a World Jamboree at Chelmsford, England, is like having the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
Over the next couple of weeks, the 36 Scouts from the Intermountain West, who formed an interfaith troop specifically for the trip, will interact with Scouts from all over the world.
They'll participate in activities designed to promote good world citizenship, such as Trash, where Scouts will learn about re-using everyday materials and how decisions made on a small scale can affect the rest of the world.
In Elements, Scouts can get familiar with the forces at work in nature — earth, wind, fire and water.
Broc Winn, 15, of Burley, Idaho, said he's looking forward to his troop's water day, known as Splash!, in which the troop may go canoeing, kayaking, rowing, sailing or learn to build rafts.
And Korbyn Karlson, 16, also of Burley, couldn't commit to being excited about any particular event. He's looking forward to everything, including a tour of London after the Jamboree's end.
Troop 420's Scouts may be excited to see that in most other countries, girls play an active role in troops.
Only the United States and Pakistani Scouting organizations limit enrollment to boys, says Cheryl Siedelmann of Idaho Falls, one of the troop's leaders.
Siedelmann will update Troop 420's Web site, www.wsjtroop420.org, daily with photos and information about the Jamboree.
As excited as Winn and Karlson are for a likely once-in-a-lifetime experience, they are part of a relatively small contingent of Scouts from the Mountain West, a region that's home to three of the largest Boy Scout councils in the United States.
Dave Danielson, a Scout leader from Paradise, Cache County, and the troop's first officer, said the lack of interest in Utah surprised him when he embarked on a mission to recruit Scouts for the World Jamboree. "I didn't think I'd have to work," he said.
But work he did, and he eventually rounded up 12 Scouts from the Trapper Trails Council, which covers territory from northern Davis County to southern Idaho.
He has a theory about why few Scouts from the region went to celebrate Scouting's 100th birthday — besides the Jamboree's $3,975 price tag. "They're saving the big guns for the North American centennial in 2010."
E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com