Normandy Camporee April 2022

Transatlantic Council (TAC) is one of three Boy Scouts of America councils serving American families living outside America. We are based in Brussels, Belgium and serve families living in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. The Transatlantic Council serves 5,000 BSA youth and 2,000 volunteers.

The Normandy Camporee is one of the highlights of our program and 2022 will be TAC’s 10th Normandy Camporee. We started in 1994 and every 3 or 2 years we organize this event, which grew into a camporee open to all Scout families from around the globe. We have not only participants from the Boy Scouts in Europe, but from scouting organizations in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and many other countries.

The goals set for the camporee are:

• Understand and remember D-Day history: many museums and historical sites are available in the vicinity of Omaha Beach. Scouts are educated on what happened and what the enormous impact of this offensive was.
• Pay tribute to the fallen: to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice, ceremonies will be held at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial Center, as well as Cemeteries of other nations. In 2022 we include a British ceremony at the Bayeux War Cemetery in Bayeux, a French ceremony at the Kieffer Commandos Monument in Ouistream, a Canadian ceremony at Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery in Reviers and for the first time in our camporee history a German ceremony at the German War Cemetery in La Cambe.
• Celebrate Peace: the time has come to no longer just celebrate victory but to celebrate Peace. Our founder Robert Baden-Powell from the very beginning established Scouting as an instrument of peace among nations: “Through the global spirit of the Scout fraternity, we will be able to help spread peace and happiness in the world, and goodwill among men. (London 1920).

It seems a logical and obvious statement “to no longer celebrate victory but to celebrate peace.” But it is one of the most difficult changes of our mindset. Not to forget but to forgive and accept the course history took. The BSA recognized the necessity of this change and reached out to the Volksbund to help organize a ceremony at the German cemetery in La Cambe, during our Normandy Camporee in April 2022. We are very glad this initiative was supported from the very beginning by the Volksbund and we will be working on a ceremony for the next months to pay tribute to those who gave their lives and are buried in foreign soil.

Text from Dick Meijaard

Normandy camporee chair 2022