World Scout Jamboree: 14 days of Yo-Yo

What is the World Scout Jamboree (WSJ)? It’s a worldwide gathering of Scouts from all over the world. Every four years, there are at least 55,000 Scout attendees at the WSJ!

Today, I took a day off. I wanted to reflect on my 13 day WSJ experience. I want to tell you the most incredible and rewarding feeling I’ve had in my entire yo-yo career. It’s an overwhelming, tiring, exhausting experience. But not a single day did I complain about it. After the long days, it is heartwarming and I couldn’t stop thinking how lucky I am to share my passion with the Scouts. The Duncan Team, family and friends, taught hundreds of kids how to yo-yo every day. Seeing the Scouts being rewarded every time they learn classic and modern yo-yoing made us so happy and excited about the future of yo-yoing.

Our team learned a lot from this event:

1. I, myself, was not aware that there are so many scouts, or even kids in general, that are not aware that yo-yos exist. This is the hardest part: telling them what yoyoing is, teaching them the fundamentals, and the history behind it.
2. Scouts are one of the best demographics in yoyoing. They don’t give up. They like challenges. Give them 30 tricks and they will learn it in a few days. Nearly all of them are friendly, helpful and easy to get along. They teach their entire camp how to yo-yo; they spread the love of the game.
3. Brick and mortar efforts are not dead. Teaching kids one by one is still the best way to spread the love of yo-yoing. It’s easier, hands on experience, and it is truly priceless and precious.

During the Jamboree there were people from more than 20 different countries that participated in our program. Slovenia, Iceland, UK, Denmark, South Korea, Hong Kong, Czech Republic... and the list goes on. Scouts who will bring yo-yos back to their country to spread the love of yo-yoing.

As of today, we have at least 7,000 scouts signed up on our Yo-Yo Scout Program (www.yo-yo.com/scouts). We are excited to follow up, our continued help and teaching the Scouts, and possibly seeing them on the yo-yo contest circuit in the near future! If you are one of the Scouts, we thank you for your support! We hope you stick around because we love to have you in our community!