Boy Scouts Bar Obese Youths from Fitness-Focused Jamboree

The Boy Scouts of America has disallowed Scouts deemed morbidly obese from attending its national Jamboree, which opened Monday at a new site in the West Virginia mountains, writes the Associated Press.

Only troop members and leaders with a body mass index—a measure of body fat based on height and weight—of less than 40 were allowed to participate. Those with an index between 32 and 40 were required to provide additional health information to qualify.

This year’s 10-day Jamboree at the Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve is billed as the most physically demanding in the annual event’s history, with a program that includes biking, rock climbing, whitewater rafting, and a 3-mile hike up a mountain.

“Part of the design in building this site was to address the need for physical fitness in our youth, which of course is a longstanding component of Scouting,” said Dan McCarthy, director of Boy Scouts’ Summit Group. “We saw this as an opportunity to integrate some new challenges” into the event, he said.