CNGEI Scout di Cassino

A international adventure

In April I started a long and fun journey to take the specialty of “interprete”. Once the other tests had been passed, the staff decided to take advantage of the presence of a group of Polish friends who came to us, in Cassino, for the Bike Jamboree to have a conversation with them, knowing full well my curiosity about their international activity and exchange information about Scouting traditions.
We talked about many interesting topics, first of all why they were doing the Bike Jamboree and it was surprising to find out that all three editions done so far, but especially this last one, have been in honor of the Polish commander Władysław Albert Anders , who came first to the rescue of Montecassino together with his soldiers, but the detail that struck me most was discovering that the bear who later became the most famous in the world fought with them, Wojtek, as they explained to me as soon as they noticed my curiosity about the teddy bear they carried with them and which I had the honor of holding in my hands during the photos we took. Furthermore, it was very moving to discover that one of the first editions was promoted by the commander himself who wanted to honor the citizens and soldiers he helped and who helped free him from his captivity in Moscow. In fact, this time they should have started from the Russian city, but given the current situation they decided to start from a nearly village; however, the scouts with whom I had the pleasure of speaking left from Toronto and their last stop was Cassino, in fact the route was organized as a relay and a few days after our chat they left and another group arrived to continue to Milan.
During the conversation, the benefits of the Bike Jamboree also emerged, which in addition to being a creative way to spend the time between one Jamboree and another, is also excellent for the environment in fact not only do they move sustainably but they are also housed in scout headquarters in the area or sleep in tents and then leave no traces. Also, this way they can better get in touch with the different cultures of the countries they visit and we had proof of this when they greeted us in Italian.
Among other things, it was surprising to discover that among the approximately 70 participants, 80% are scouts and that the youngest person is 12 years old. Speaking of age, it was also shocking to discover that among the many scout differences between us and them, one is precisely the age of the leaders, in fact theirs are between 16 and 25 years old and the older ones mostly form the leaders . Furthermore, even if it depends on the area, their summer camps are much longer, for the pack about 2 weeks while for the department even 3 or 4.
Giulia Varone – Reparto orione