TALCOTT, W.Va. — Thousands of Boy Scouts performed their final public service projects Tuesday throughout southern West Virginia ahead of the National Boy Scout Jamboree wrap up set for Wednesday.
One group of Scouts from Chicago worked on a project at the John Henry Memorial Park in Talcott, Summers County.
“What they’re doing here in John Henry is building and maintaining trails, putting up a gazebo, putting up picnic tables, they’re helping to fix up the playground equipment. The ultimate end goal is that they are going to be able to make it a tourist attraction,” Citizen Conservation Corps Information Director Matt Sutton said.
Local residents say it would have taken them three years to get as much done.
The 40,000 Scouts attending the Jamboree fanned out over nine southern counties during the last week doing 300,000 hours of work.
Sutton said the Scouts and community volunteers actually got a lot more done than originally planned.
“So if they wanted to start painting a fence they ended up working on a sidewalk, working on their buildings, flower gardens, things like that,” Sutton said.
There was much to do at the home of the National Jamboree, the Bechtel Summit in Fayette County, but Sutton said the Scouts seemed to enjoy their ventures into dozens of southern West Virginia communities.
“They loved it,” Sutton said. “I mean all the Scouts who I’ve talked to have said the community service project was one of their favorite parts because they got to interact with community members and they got to see different parts of West Virginia.”
Sutton predicted the plan implemented to accomplish the community work would serve as a blueprint for future efforts.