4,000 Boy Scouts Expected This Weekend at Valley Forge Encampment
By Brad Segall
VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (CBS) -- More than four thousand Boy Scouts and their troop leaders, some from as far away as Texas, will descend on Valley Forge Park this weekend for an annual event that's marking its 100th birthday.
The "Washington's Birthday Encampment and Pilgrimage" is the oldest continuous scouting event in the world. For the past century, scouts have been making their way to Valley Forge for a weekend of activities that combines fun and games with educational activities.
Encampment co-chair Barry Kauffmann says the scouts will learn about the many adventures and hardships that George Washington endured.
"For the most part what they're gaining is an experience in the winter of what it was like for General Washington's troops to be camping at Valley Forge," Kauffmann notes.
He says they'll learn about the music of the American Revolution, medical practices, and the roles that blacks played. They'll also see musket and cannon demonstrations.
Kauffmann believes the scouts keep coming back to Valley Forge because it's considered the most important, the most well known, and the most historic winter encampment of the Revolution.
