QUANTICO, Va. -- The Marine Corps was recently recognized by the Boy Scouts of America for its participation in the scouts' quadrennial Jamboree held at Fort A.P. Hill.
Colonel Reynolds B. Peele, the Chief of Staff for the Marine Corps Recruiting Command, accepted the award from Clyde Mayer, National Director of Order of the Arrow (OA). Mayer presented the Plaque to the command on behalf of the Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts.
This past year the recruiting Command played a large part at the 2001 National Scout Jamboree. The Marine Corps partnered with the scouts by sponsoring Scoutopia, a theatrical presentation of the scout oath and USMC core values. According to Maj. Andrew Fortunato, Assistant Chief of Staff for Marketing and Public Affairs, "the theme was strong values make strong leaders, and the show had heavy Marine Corps themes and content.
The national scout jamboree is like the Olympics for the scouts. It occurs once every 4 years, and scouts from all over world attend. This year over more than 600,000 scouts and guests visited the jamboree held at Fort AP Hill, VA.
The Corps' involvement included Scoutopia, the Auto Mechanics Merit Badge, physical fitness sessions with the Scouts, and Marine Corps band performances.
According to Fortunato, 2001 was the first time the Marine Corps had a coordinated and integrated marketing effort and presence at a jamboree.
"I had great support from the command and Marine Corps at large. We had 50 Marines from across the Corps volunteer to support Marine Corps effort at Jamboree."