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----~ --- ST. l'AUl~IONHR---"RES -==--- ------.---.----.-. --.----.------.--------- S outs try carryon despite four deaths President Bush to speak tonight BY ,JAMES JANEGA Chicago Tribune BOWLING GREEN, Va. - A scuba demonstration and sail- boat races held the interest of Boy Scouts camped in Tues- day's Virginia heat, puslling aside for the moment a pall cast by the deaths of four adult lead- ers electrocuted Monday evening. Scouts and their leaders say the accident marred the 2005 National Boy Scout Jamboree as it began,' just after colorful buses pulled into Fort AP. Hill, an expansive military reserva- tion in tidewater Virginia haU\vay between Richmond and Wasllington, D.C. Leaders of the Western Alas- ka Council raising a pole for their dining tent lost control Monday evening. As horrified boys looked on, the pole appeared to stril{e a power line, scout officials said. There were screams and reports of smoke. Rescue vehi- cles raced across the fort Karl Holfeld said his 15-year- old son, Taylor, witnessed the accident and was on his cell phone to bis mother back home in Alaska when the electrocu- tions occurred. The boys "all stai'ted screanl- ing," Holfeld told the Ancborage Daily News. "He said, 'Ob my God, oh my God, tbe tent is on fire, they're being burned!' " The Scouts spent Tuesday revievving safety procedures and mourning the deaths of the four men, but said the event would begin today as pianned, with an evening speech by Pres- ident Bush. A memorial service will be held during the opening ceremony of the Jamboree, which draws more than 40,000 Scouting enthusiasts from around tbe world. Three Alaskan scoutmasters and a longthne camp ranger retired to Ohio were killed. Three other adults were injured as well as one scout. The estimated 32,000 other scouts - including most of the 80 boys from the Western Alas- ka Council -. went ahead with scheduled activities as planned. Tbere were the longtime interests of scouting to pursue - pioneering projects and archery ranges, canoe races and obstacie courses. All of them opened to crowels Tues- day, officials saiel. "We're trying to get them rallying as much as we possibly can," said Mel Sundin, a scout- master from Fairview, Pa., who volunteered in the Jamboree media relations office. To offset 97-degree tempera- tures, uniformed boys Ingged water bottles and sbnffied thcough a sprawling 3,000-acre corner of the base refasbioned into a camping wonderland. As the heat index crept to 115 in the thick air, loudspeaker armonncements reminded the teenagers and adults to keep drinking water. "The smarter ones were plarming ahead to do some kind of water activity to cool off," said Northeast lIlinois Conncil program director Jim Neubamn. The dead were identifi.ed as Michael Shibe, 49, a proponent of scouting since grade school; Mike Lacroix, 42, an American history buff; and Ronald Bitzer, 58, a retired administrative law judge, all of Anchorage, Alaska. Also killed was Scott Edward Powell, 57, of PerryS\@e, Ohio, who for 26 years had been a ranger at Camp Gorsuch, north of Anchorage. Shibe had two sons at the Jamboree and Lacroix had one. The three children all returned to Alaska, and their families and Alaskan scout officials held news conferences Tuesday afternoon. "It's been overwhelming," said Connie Allison, executive secretary for Alaslmn scout executive Bill Haines. In addi- tion to the grief oflosing leaders known well in Anchorage was the emotional roller coaster that came with answering the phone. "We had two boys in North CaroIlna send us $50 of their lawn mowing money to help the families," she said. "We've had calls from Maui, from every- where." Founded in 1910 based on a handbook for British scouts by Lord Robert Baden-Poweil, the Boy Scouts of America bas been holding Jamborees since 1937. Since 1981, the now-quadrennial event has been held at Fort AP. HilL The budget for this year, the largest single site gathering in the Jamboree's bistory, is $26 million - including $7.3 million from the Department of Defense bndget, which the Pentagon list- ed as training for crowd control. Anna Mazi of Fort Meade, Md., whose 12-year-old son, Brian, is attending his first Jam- boree, said she had no fears for her chIld's safety. "I trust the jndgment of the leaders who are there with them," she said. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush would stick to the focus of his original speech on service and choices while touclling on the tragedy_ "These parents were there doing their part to help their children have a better lmder- standing of service and leader- ship and making the right cbolc- es in life." But, McClellan added: "Those parents would want the Boy Scouts to continue forward in their important work." The Jamboree, held every four years shlce 1937, runs through Ang. 3. Scouts ages 12- 18 are to spend 10 days camping in tents and participating in activities that include archery, fishhlg and a GPS-based scav- enger hunt. There are about 400 electro- eutions each year in the U.S., and abont a quarter of them are related to power lines.