Four Bedfordshire Scout Leaders have volunteered for a nerve-racking trip of a lifetime. They will be looking after the needs of 36 teenage Scouts during a 12-day World Scout Jamboree taking place in the summer of 2011 on the East coast of Sweden. For the fab four it will be a 24/7 event and the training for it starts now.

Helen Draycott a Scout Leader from Maulden, the sole female, has an excuse. One of her sons is part of the contingent and the other attended the last Jamboree in Chelmsford. She admits that this time she won’t be able to call home for things she’s forgotten.

Helen stands no nonsense. What she lacks in inches (the family are 6ft 4in giants) she makes up for in dogged firmness and tenacity. Her first aid skills mean that she will be in charge of the bandages, plasters and pills. She says, “We may not get much sleep but I just know it will be a thrilling experience of a lifetime.”

Gerry Pope from Biggleswade is a veteran of at least three Jamborees with a brand of good humour and jokes that will go down well with the exuberant teenage Scouts in his charge. An enthusiastic camp fire host who plays a mean guitar (with music), Gerry also boasts a garage full of Scouting memorabilia going back almost 100 years. He will soon be adding to his collection.

As assistant county commissioner responsible for international events, Gerry has a detailed knowledge of what happens at camps around world from Australia to Zanzibar and adventures up mountains and down white water rapids. He says, “Every Jamboree is different. In Sweden we’ll have wide open spaces and brilliant sunshine with sea activities in the freezing cold clear water of the Baltic Sea. Sweden has 96,000 fresh water lakes and they gave us the Aga cooker, the Celsius temperature scale, ABBA and dynamite. The Scouts will also learn to eat from a smogasborg. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Scout Leader number three is Tom Hose who lives in Chalton. His claim to fame is a doctorate in tourism and leisure and an interest in geotourism. He is Principal Lecturer and Course Leader for the MSc in Heritage Management at Buckingham University where he has worked for 18 years. He has various learned papers to his credit including one on geological conservation. It all gives Tom a different perspective on his trip but he reckons this is an event where actions will speak louder than words. “You don’t tend to think about geology when you’re upside down in a canoe”, he said.

Heading up the whole contingent is Explorer Scout Leader Steve Davies from Stotfold. His wife reckons he’s mad. Always has been. But for the next 18 months she will be a Scouting widow as Steve trains his contingent for the biggest thrill of their lives. He says’ “We’ll have our work cut out to mould this enthusiastic mixed sex group into a powerful team who can show the other 30,000 Scouts from over 200 countries what the UK can do. These are lessons that will fit them for an active and useful life in the future. And I guess us leaders will learn a thing or two as well.”

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