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As Boy Scouts prepare to descend on Caroline County for the 15th National Boy Scout Jamboree in July, local businesses are readying their cash registers.
That's because the 44,000 Scouts and staff expected to attend this year's event--and about 250,000 family and visitors--shower dollars on restaurants, hotels and shops from Caroline to Fredericksburg.
The last jamboree--held in 1997--pumped an estimated $18 million into businesses within a 50 mile radius of Fort A.P. Hill where the event is held, said Ken Perrotte, base spokesman.
This year's jamboree, scheduled for July 23 through Aug. 1, is expected to draw thousands more attendees than the last one. That means more money in merchants' pockets.
"A lot of these visitors are staying in area hotels and motels and eating in area restaurants," Perrotte said. "There's not too many things in this region that pull in a quarter-million people in a 10-day period."
Most Scouts will stay at A.P. Hill, but family members and other visitors camp at hotels and take in the historic sites.
Mansion View Bed & Breakfast in Bowling Green booked up three years ago, said co-owner Dennis Donachy.
After the last jamboree, a Scout leader was disappointed he hadn't rented the four-room inn, situated just a mile from Fort A.P. Hill.
"He asked us how come they didn't have the opportunity to have this place since it's so close. We told them they were too late," Donachy said.
That Scout leader called shortly afterward to book for this year.
But the inn is still fielding phone calls and e-mail asking for a room, he said.
"We probably could've filled this place up at least twice more," he said.
Other hotels throughout the area also are filling quickly.
Lisa Caswell, operations manager for Fairfield Inn on U.S. 1 in Spotsylvania County, said she's been taking jamboree calls since December.
"Normally, we're pretty much booked for the Boy Scout Jamboree," she said.
Jamboree visitors likely will fill the majority of the area's motels, said Kathy Beard, director of the Fredericksburg Office of Economic Development and Tourism.
"There's probably not going to be a hotel room to be had," she said.
Those visitors also are likely to stop in downtown shops and restaurants and tour Fredericksburg's historic points of interest. Already, her office has booked 25 tour buses to take jamboree visitors sightseeing.
"The tourism and hospitality industry is very, very enthusiastic and optimistic when the Boy Scout Jamboree is at our doorstep," she said.
The Boy Scouts of America National Council contracts with local companies to provide a variety of services--from delivering food to printing newsletters.
For example, Kinko's Copies in Fredericksburg prints the bulk of the event's newsletters, said Renee Fairrer, spokeswoman for the council, based in Irving, Texas.
"By the time the jamboree is over, we will print more than 100,000 sheets of paper," she said.