If the National Boy Scouts Jamboree coming to Glen Jean was a “game-changer,” the game — and the potential benefits to southern West Virginia — just got a lot bigger.

Sen. Joe Manchin announced Thursday that, for the first time in more than 40 years, the Boy Scouts will host their World Jamboree in the United States in 2019 — and even better, he said, they are hosting it in West Virginia.

“We’re talking for over 40 years, the United States has never had a location that the world scouting organizations had thought was worthy. Now, we do, we’ve won,” Manchin said. “This is a tremendous opportunity for us to showcase America, West Virginia and Glen Jean.”

In less than a decade, more than 35,000 Scouts ages 14 to 17, from more than 220 countries will be visiting the Bechtel Summit, currently under construction near Glen Jean. For 12 days, the Scouts will be participating in various activities and adventures in and around the “tented city” the Summit will become in 2019.

The bid, put together by Boy Scouts of America, Scouts Canada and the Scout Association of Mexico, was selected as the winning bid at the World Scout Conference in Brazil Thursday morning.

“For over a year, the three Scout associations have been working together to put together this proposal to say the Summit would be great place for a Jamboree,” said Larry Pritchard, the Boy Scouts National Jamboree director. ”We can offer whitewater rafting, mountain biking, rock climbing — that’s never happened at a World Jamboree before.”

Some of the Scouts will kick off their trip to the World Jamboree with a visit to Mexico. Tours of various Canadian cities, Washington, D.C. and Hollywood will also be a part of the Boy Scout event.

Manchin said the development that will come to the state as a result will be unparalleled and called the Bechtel Summit the “world class of world adventures.”

“I’m not sure they would have been able to attract a World Jamboree if it had not been in this location in West Virginia,” Manchin said. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for our country to show off scouting in America and, more importantly, for West Virginia as a premier place to come to a scouting event.”

A “youth contingent” from Canada, Mexico and the United States visited the Glen Jean site six times to plan the bid process.

Pritchard explained that a jamboree is a gathering of Scouts from all over to come together and learn from each other. He said a World Jamboree is the same thing — on a massive scale.

“The world’s coming to West Virginia. How cool is that?” Pritchard said.

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said he is trying to do his part to make sure the Boy Scouts have what they need to get the Reserve, and the jamborees ready. He said the potential impact is “tremendous” and said he is continually meeting with every group involved to make sure the Boy Scouts project is a success.

“The whole issue with the Boy Scouts coming to southern West Virginia is a game-changer for our economy and this further enhances that tremendous impact the Boy Scouts are going to have on our area,” Rahall said.

“We have a lot infrastructure planning and implementation to do. We’re working on that. I have continuous meetings with the heads of the Boy Scouts and the heads of the (National) Parks Service. All of us together — government at all levels and the private sector — are joined at the hip in doing all we can to ensure that we are prepared.”

Bill Baker, executive director of the Jobs Foundation, is heading up a steering committee to prepare the community and businesses for the Boy Scouts arrival. He said the event provides the committee with even more incentive to work hard before the Boy Scouts arrive.

“That’s just another great event that’s coming to the Summit. I think it will show, again, the importance of the Boy Scouts moving to our area,” Baker said. “It will highlight southern West Virginia and the entire state of West Virginia for the world.”

The committee, already preparing for national Boy Scouts events in 2013 and 2017, have known the World Jamboree could be an option. He said Thursday’s announcement will probably excite the community even further.

“More and more people are asking questions and more and more are becoming aware of this great opportunity,” Baker said. “I think the fact that the World Jamboree is coming now is going to make people that much more interested in what is going on.”

Fayette County Commissioner Matt Wender said he struggles to imagine the actual impact of so many people coming to the area and said it could not be anything but good. Wender is the chairman of the Community Development Committee subcommittee of the Reaching the Summit by 2013 Steering Committee.

“We are very pleased we have this opportunity. We’re certainly going to work hard to make the best of it,” Wender said. “It gives our part of the state a chance to put its best foot forward and show what a great place this is to live, raise a family and start a business.

“We just have to be smart enough and prepared enough to welcome that opportunity and make the most of it.”

Wender said the two national jamborees preceding the World Jamboree should provide the area with an opportunity to prepare for the sort of things that may need to be done before the international meeting of Scouts begins.

Doug Maddy, director of the Southern West Virginia Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the announcement is the best news for tourism in the area since the initial announcement that the Bechtel Summit would be constructed.

“This is more difficult to get than the Olympics,” Maddy said. “The United States hasn’t had a World Jamboree in over 40 years. This is absolutely incredible.”

Maddy said local officials will throw every resource available behind getting ready to take advantage of the Boy Scouts project.

“We’ll be ready for it, there’s no doubt in my mind,” Maddy said. “I know the Scouts will be ready for it; they are the most prepared people in the world.”

— E-mail:

tkuykendall@register-herald.com