The museum was actually inaugurated on Founder's Day, February 22nd, 2013, with the opening of the Marathon exhibition. Christos Stathopoulos is responsible for the historical archive of the Scouts of Greece and it is thanks to his efforts mainly that the Association finally has a small but important museum it can be proud of. The exhibition will be on during the whole year of 2013.
The exhibition presents important documents from the Association's historic archive, souvenirs and unique scout treasures such as gifts given by international delegations to camp officials such as the Camp Chief, Dimitrios "Rann" Alexatos and Crown Prince Constantine, then Chief Scout of Greece. On display is also a Dutch wooden clog hand-signed on location (at the Jamboree) by Olave Baden Powell.
On display in the exhibition are four items contributed by our Troop: a panoramic photograph of the campsite given as gift by the Austrian delegation, an empty milk carton issued especially for the Jamboree by the American people, a souvenir Jamboree knife and a official-issue 1-kilo sugar bag imprinted with the Jamboree emblem.
The Museum also features a unique collection of staffs and canes that once belonged to Dimitrios "Rann" Alexatos, for many years General Chief of the Scouts of Greece and President of its Executive Board, also member of the World Scout Committee of the World Organization of the Scout Movement from 1957 to 1963. Alexatos, the most recognizable figure of Greek Scouting for many decades, was awarded the World Scout Committee's distinction, the Bronze Wolf, at the 19th World Scout Conference that took place in Rhodes, Greece in the days following the Marathon Jamboree.
At 1:50am on July 28th, 1963, while turning to prepare for landing at Bombay's Santa Cruz airport, the de Havilland Comet 4C of United Arab Airlines flight 869 that was carrying the whole Philippine Scout contingent to Marathon for the 11th World Scout Jamboree, crashed into the Arabian Sea just off Bombay under severe turbulence and heavy rain. The crash took the lives of all 55 passengers and 8 crew members aboard and the bodies were never recovered.
On the occasion of completion of 50 years from the tragic loss of the Philippine Scout contingent, the Manila International Scout Museum issued, earlier in 2013, two special limited edition scout badges. Angelo Manarang, founder and curator of the museum, kindly shared the badges with marathon1963.com (see graphic).
On the same occasion, the families of lost Filippino scouts are preparing a commemorative edition in remembrance of their boys for which marathon1963.com is honored to have contributed rare photographic material and information.
In fact, another special event was organized 20 years ago in Marathon, in 1993, for the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the 11th World Scout Jamboree. Organized by Alexatos and Paradisis, then vice-president of the Executive Board of the Scouts of Greece, on Saturday, August 7th, 1993 a large group of 11th Jamboree participants gathered again at Marathon.
The honorary celebration committee included many government officials such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs M. Papakonstantinou, ambassadors, the Mayor of the City of Marathon I. Bekas, General G. Valis responsible in 1963 for the campsite's technical works, Academy Award-winning composer Manos Hatzidakis, composer of the Jamboree song, M. Lazarimos, Commander in 1963 of ship Ikaria stationed at Marathon Bay, Victor Walker, editor of the "Marathon Courier", Jacques Moreillon, General Secretary of the World Scout Organization, member of the Swiss contingent at the Marathon Jamboree, Thiz Stoffer, President of the European Scout Committee and Alexandros Komninos, President of the Executive Board of the Scouts of Greece.
The all-day celebration commenced at 9.30 with the cleaning of the Shinias beach by scouts and with visits to the archaelogical sites of the Marathon fighters tomb, Ancient Ramnounta, Plateae tomb and the Archaelogical Museum of Marathon. After that, many guests went swimming in the bay of Shinias, just as thousand of scouts from all over the world used to, 30 years ago then.
The main celebration took place on the afternoon of August 7th, at the Leon Anti hotel in Marathon. In a festive outdoors area the guests had the opportunity to find old friends again, receive the event's souvenir, find philatelic first day of issue covers of the event, sign the commemorative frame, remember the days of Marathon 1963 by admiring the souvenir exhibition, participate in the naming of the Shinias esplanade as "11th World Jamboree 1963 Road", enjoy scout songs and watch an aeromodelling exhibition just like in August 1963.
Then everyone gathered around a symbolic campfire where honors and souvenirs were given to special guests, songs were sung and slides from 1963 were projected. The night ended with a festive dinner.
On the occassion of the 23rd World Scout Jamboree (Yamaguchi, Japan, 2015), marathon1963.com was commissioned by the Scouts of Greece to prepare what would constitute the national gift of the greek contingent to the organizers. We produced a luxurious large format digitally-printed photo album which portrayed exclusively Japanese scouts in Marathon during the 11th World Scout Jamboree in 1963. The 30-page album was professional constructed by amfotolab.gr of thick cardboard sheets laminated with glossy high-quality prints and included 28 color and grayscale photos. The album was handed to Vassilis Birtsas, leader of the contingent, during the Ceremony for the Handover of the Flag of the Scouts of Greece to the contingent, which took place on June 28, 2015, in the premises of Saint Andrew's Scout Camp in Nea Makri, Athens. The gift arrived at its final destination on July 29th, 2015, when Vassilis presented the organizers with the album. Their reactions were enthousiastic. Marathon1963.com is proud to present, below, an electronic copy of the photo album. Flip the album by lifting the corners while holding the mouse, or use the slider to browse.
For many - many years, all around the world, thousands of Scout adventures, explorations in woods, seashores or museums, day or night wide games, treasure hunts, cultural – trivia quizzes, camp holidays’ themes and almost all kinds of scouts activities were occasionally inspired by the stories, the spirit and of course the principles of Indiana Jones.
This amazing figure of professor of Archeology, created by George Lucas and realized along with Steven Spielberg, gave the opportunity to Scouts, of all ages, to feel the excitement of true adventures, to learn about unknown to them civilizations, to trespass difficult obstacles following mysterious maps, to develop their creativity making replicas of lost art crafts and finally to acquire valuable for a good character experiences.
In 2023 when the film Indiana Jones and Dial of Destiny, was released by Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm, it became almost certain that Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr. was about to stop his adventures and be finally retired. At that moment we felt that we had to dedicate to Indy, a former Scout himself, a spectacular scout activity, related to an equally amazing world scout event, that took place 60 years ago, just six years before his last adventure (1969), the 11th World Scout Jamboree in Marathon Greece .
In this respect we designed a programme and developed a presentation of Indiana Jones adventure in Marathon Greece, back in 1963, when he was trying to find the Marathon Shield.
The plot
The Marathon shield was crafted by Ancient Greek God Hephaestus (the god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture and volcanoes) and it was made of Herculium (Hc), a mythical element that does not exist any more. That Shield had some extraordinary powers, the most important of which was to turn any kind of enemies into friends. It was kept in the Oracle of Delfi (a sacred place considered to be the center of the world) and was used as peace making tool e.g. to put into effect the Olympic Truce.
According to history the Shield was last seen in 490 B.C when Greek cities had to be united in order to face the upcoming Persian invasion. Highly respected analysts were puzzled by the fact that in the peak of Cold War, in a country still suffering from the wounds of WW2 and trying to forget a ten years civil war, a big peace gathering of 13.000 young and old scouts, was taking place.
Many “experts” started talking about a possible reappearance of the ancient Shield of Peace, taking also into consideration the exceptional metal badge of the Jamboree, representing an ancient Greek shield!
Indiana Jones realized that he had to visit the Jamborees campsite in Marathon and try to find, as soon as possible, the “magic” shield of friendship. Spies of various nationalities were also in search of a tool that could easily turn their enemies into “friends”.
During his staying in Marathon, Indy seeks the assistance of his scout friends, in the form of various tasks that could help him understand the details of everyday life in Jamboree.
Following the requests of Indiana Jones, scouts of all ages and nationalities, can now be transferred back to 1963, in Marathon and experience the life and the events of 11th world scout Jamboree. A plethora of pictures and relative to the Jamboree information, support this fantastic time travel!
The tasks that scouts can undertake to assist Indy can be found in an attached list of activities.
At the end of this adventure, Indy finds the shield and in the back of the shield discovers a hidden ancient papyrus where the 147 of Delphic Commandments – maxims, were copied!
The Delphic commandments - maxims are a set of moral precepts that were inscribed on the Temple of Apollo in the area of ancient Greek Oracle of Delphi. Reading those Maxims – commandments, someone could easily conclude that they form the basis of Scout Law and Promise and that the full implementation of fundamental Principles of Scouting could significantly help humanity to build and safeguard world Peace forever!
The Delphic commandments, in English, could also be found here.
Enjoy the Marathon Shield adventure! Click the Indy graphic to enter the game.
This project was designed by Charalampos Vogiatzis and realized with the significant assistance and technical support of Konstantinos Dassios, founder of Marathon 1963.
C. Vogiatzis was a cub scout back in 1963 and after a long career in Scouting, he was elected in the National Board and served as Chief Commissioner of Soma Hellinon Proskopon (Scouts of Greece) from 1999 until 2003, being among others responsible for the organization of two major World Scout events, held in Greece, in 2002, the 8th World Scout Youth Forum in Metsovo and the 36th World Scout Conference in Thessaloniki.
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