Gibraltar Scouts take part in Scout Skills Festival, West Virginia

Angelina Linares, Tomas Linares and Nia Dignam from Gibraltar are three of the 5,000 UK Scouts joining 40,000 others taking part in the World Scout Jamboree, a skills and adventure festival happening right now in West Virginia.

They are meeting 45,000 Scouts from nearly every country in the world, sharing their skills while enjoying high adventure in this picturesque part of North America.

The Jamboree offers young people the chance to learn new skills that they can use in other aspects of their life and taste high adventure.

The World Scout Jamboree is the culmination of two years of work for the leaders, which has involved camps and team building events preparing the young people for living on a humid site in West Virginia amongst Scouts from nearly every country in the world.

“I have learned skills in how to scuba dive which is something I have never done before,” Angelina said.

“We have worked well as a team and we have taken part in so many activities and it’s an amazing experience.”

The event was opened by UK Chief Scout Bear Grylls who is well known for his survival television shows.

“World Scout Jamborees only happen every four years and tens of thousands of Scouts attend each one,” Mr Grylls said.

“They are incredible festivals of peace, friendship and adventure. Young people will make friends for life with people from over 150 countries, experience different food, language and culture while learning new skills. It will be the journey of a lifetime.”

The 2019 Jamboree, jointly hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico, was set to be one of the biggest and “most exciting” yet.

The theme is ‘Unlock a new world’, focusing on how to create a sustainable world together.

The World Scout Jamboree North America held in West Virginia comes to a close today.

The Scouts was founded on 1 August 1907, and worldwide has over 50 million members, both male and female, and operates in nearly every country in the world.