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Local Scout is again top 'corn seller |
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Wednesday, 10 December 2008 |
For the third straight year, John Michael Gillespie, 11, of Benton is the top seller of Trail’s End brand popcorn for the Ouachita Area Council Boy Scouts of America.
With ambitions to become an Eagle Scout, John Michael will receive cash and prizes for his hard work and dedication to the Boy Scouts. He said the popcorn sales are used by Boy Scouts to help with everything from outdoor adventures to scholarship funds.
“There are a lot of nice people in the neighborhood where I mostly sell,” he said. “The selling of the popcorn helps us do things we want to do in the Scouts.”
Trails End Popcorn is the National Boy Scouts of America selling tool, much like the Girl Scout cookie sales. A scholarship fund is available for any Scout who sells popcorn and meets the qualifying criteria, with the potential to earn 6 percent of the individual’s total popcorn sales each year. That 6 percent also earns interest until he is ready to use it for his post-high school education.
This year, Trails End added a new way to purchase popcorn. A customer now has the option of sending $25 worth of popcorn treats to military men and woman and their families. This not only helped John Michael’s sales, but he said it also can help boost the morale of soldiers overseas.
The past two years, John Michael sold popcorn as a Cub Scout but now is in the sixth grade. He is in his first year as a Boy Scout for Troop 99 in Salem. One of his former Cub Scout leaders said his new troop gained not only a great Scout, but that John Michael would not disappoint in his popcorn sales.
“He is a real go-getter,” said Hardy Banks, Cubmaster of Pack 38, which is chartered by Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School. “He also never causes any problems. He is just a good kid and one great popcorn salesman.”
John Michael seeks to work his way through the ranks of Boy Scouts and eventually earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout. He is currently a Tenderfoot.
“I want to be an Eagle Scout,” he said. “It will be hard, but I think I can do it.”
John Michael said he also has a goal of someday becoming an engineer and hopes the money he earns from popcorn sales can help fund his college education. With his sales totals, his mother, Sandra, believes it is possible. After reaching nearly $14,000 in sales in 2006 and 2007, she said they set a goal of increasing each year’s sales by $500. For 2008, the goal was for $4,500. He surpassed that total for a total of more than $4,700.
“Our neighbors are very supportive,” she said. “Be-cause he has been selling since 2003, they all know him. This is his fifth year and they kind of look forward to him coming now. They say, ‘Oh it must be that time of year again.’”
Sandra Gillespie said that most of John Michael’s sales come from door-to-door visits, but noted that he also sells popcorn to family and friends and his parents’ co-workers.
“We walk door to door together and we show them copies of our past sales to remind them what they got,” she said. “When we go to the neighbors, we show them what they ordered last year and it helps them remember what they want. Sometimes they just say, ‘Well, put me down for what I got last year,’ so it just makes it easier for us and for them.”
She said that most of the customers recognize the sales from the popcorn benefit the Boy Scouts, but they are probably not aware that they can help the future education of the Scouts.
“John Michael has already earned a good little amount for that scholarship fund,” she said. “Hopefully, he can use it to pay for books and other things when he goes to college. It will at least help him when he gets to college.”
She said his sales have also helped John Michael overcome his shyness. She said that when they first started selling popcorn door to door, she would have to do the talking for him, but he now has gained enough confidence to promote the product himself.
John Michael said it is the things he learned in both the Cub Scouts and now the Boy Scouts that have helped him improve his self-confidence.
“I’ve learned a lot of things,” he said. “I’ve learned self-discipline, skills in survival, first aid and a lot of other things. I think Boy Scouts of America is a really good thing and they really help the community. We have had several projects, like we pick up trash, we are in the parade, we go camping. I want to do anything that I can do to help people.”
The Ouachita Area Council Boy Scouts of America is headquartered in Hot Springs and serves Saline, Garland, Hot Spring, Clark, Pike and Mont-gomery counties. Starla Beall is the council’s representative.
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