Jamboree Campers Move In
By SETH STASKEY
POSTED: July 17, 2007
MORRISTOWN — Jamboree In The Hills doesn’t officially begin until Thursday when Joe Zelek takes the stage at 4:25 p.m.
However, the partying began Saturday for some and really kicked into high gear Monday morning, when the official Jamboree Camp Grounds opened. Droves of country music and party fans poured into the site and set up their homes away from home, where they will spend the next six days.
A lot of the fans who pulled into western Belmont County to set up shop for this week have been planning for the event since the first of the year. But they aren’t the only ones who are prepared for a long week in the hills near Morristown.
A medical tent is set up and ready to go on the Jamboree grounds. It will be open 24 hours a day for the next week to assist Jamboree-goers who need medical treatment for everything from an insect bite to dehydration.
For the 30th consecutive year, the tent is being operated by East Ohio Regional Hospital of Martins Ferry. It will employ no fewer than 20 doctors, 18 nurses and 50 emergency squad crews for the week.
“We have eight days of EMTs and paramedics on hand here,” said Bernie Albertini, East Ohio Regional Hospital’s administrative director. “On show days, we’ll have three or four doctors on hand at all times.”
Albertini — who has spearheaded medical tent operations for the past five years but is giving way after this year to Cara Gazdik — has seen a little bit of everything at the Jamboree.
“A lot of what we see depends on the weather,” Albertini said. “If it’s hot and humid out, we’re going to see a lot of dehydration because people don’t drink enough water. If it rains and it gets slippery, a lot of people fall down and have scrapes on their arms and legs. Last year, it rained and then got hot, so you had both.”
According to Gazdik — who serves as the Director of Education at EORH — a lot of eye injuries also are reported due to people using squirt bottles improperly or sunscreen getting into the eye.
While most fans were still getting settled in, the medical tent dealt with a patient on Sunday.
“You see some people who get hurt setting up their camp site,” Gazdik pointed out.
On the average show night, the medical tent will see between 300 and 400 people for treatment — not counting the folks who just need a Band-Aid or have a problem that is treatable at the fence.
