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:
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