Postcards Home program will give youth the opportunity to share their Jamboree experience

A Postcards Home computer with the Summit logo

The 2023 National Jamboree is going to be so fun, it’d be a shame to keep it all to yourself. The Postcards Home program is designed to give participants an easy way to share that fun with friends and family back home.

Thanks to a partnership with WVNS 59 News, the Postcards Home program will give participants the opportunity to record video interviews that will be shared online, and possibly also with your hometown news TV station.

“We’re really excited to partner with WVNS 59 News to make it easy and fun for Scouts to share their Jamboree experiences with their family and friends back home,” says Tom Kraeutler, team lead for national & VIP media.  “The Jamboree is an amazing and fun adventure for Scouts, and now they’ll be able to share that excitement with everyone supporting them at home.”

How to participate in Postcards Home

Postcards Home will have one studio near the CONSOL Energy Bridge and another near Boulder Cove in the climbing area of the Summit Bechtel Reserve. Participants can stop by either studio at any time to participate in the program.

Both locations will be staffed by a full production crew from WVNS 59 News to help Jamboree participants record their interviews.

Everyone who stops by will be asked a handful of questions about their experience at the Jamboree and their experience in Scouting overall. All of it will be recorded and edited by the WVNS team.

(The Postcards Home volunteers assure me it’s OK if a Scout flubs or stumbles over their wording. They’ll just record it over again!)

Do youth get a patch for participating?

Yes! Of course! It wouldn’t be the Jamboree if there weren’t patches!

Youth who record a video for the Postcards Home program will receive a patch (shown below).

Postcards Home patch

Where will the videos be posted?

The Postcards Home videos will be posted on the WVNS 59 News website.

Since WVNS is part of the NEXSTAR network, which comprises 200 local television stations across the country, WVNS will also be sharing the interview with the Scout’s hometown television station, giving them the option to share it on their website or maybe even on air during their news telecast.

Once they are posted online, all videos will be easily shareable via social media.

In addition to partnering with the BSA on the Postcards Home program, WVNS will be producing two live statewide news programs each day from a remote on-site studio. They’ll also be producing stories throughout the Jamboree about many aspects of Scouting’s main event, which will air both locally on WVNS and nationally on the NEXSTAR Network.

Scouts interested in watching the live broadcasts can stop by the WVNS remote studio, which is located across from the Tillerson Center next to the Communicore Tent.


About Aaron Derr 492 Articles
Aaron Derr is the senior editor of Scout Life and Scouting magazines, and also a former Cubmaster and Scouts BSA volunteer.