I hate fundraisers. I am such a terrible salesman for that reason. I'm a rather persuasive public speaker. I've been told a million times, "You should sell cars!" But alas, sales is not my ballyhoo. I have difficulty with being aggressive or assertive. My son, on the other hand, has no such compunctions. Timmy, the big brother skunk, could could sell Obama on drilling in ANWAR. As long as he could wear his Cub Scout uniform. He is hysterical to watch. He sells on pure cuteness. I've watched him sell to the grumpy old guy wearing the wifebeater with stained underarms. I've watched him sell to CUSTOMERS at the gas station. The kids is unreal! Last year, we had a kid from another pack encroach on our turf on the first day of popcorn sales...the first day! He hit the entire town before we even got our popcorn. Yet, Timmy still sold the expected amount, with a good deal more. (I've had a word with said other pack's Cubmaster...that won't happen again.) As for myself, I will just sit back and watch, and thank Heaven that I don't have to do anything but drive the car full of popcorn. I'm glad to know that Tim will never be lacking in funds to do just about anything he wants in scouting.
This was our first pack meeting of the year, which means the popcorn spiel. The boys always do fine with it, and frankly, the parents in our pack are extremely supportive of it. With a few exceptions of course. Last year we had a kid sell enough that he won a free, nice, tent and two tickets to the Husker spring game. Sadly, the spring game was rained out for the first time in history. Tornado warnings will do that. They always put up a goofy prize for kids who sell $600. They get gift cards for each milestone, but $600 gets the awesome prize. Timmy's first year, it was a marshmallow crossbow............seriously................a marshmallow crossbow.......Outstanding!! The second year was a Zyclone. Pretty cool toy, with the right wind you can launch this little foam ring thingy across a whole football field. Even better, it floats softly enough for Daniel, the skunk in the middle, to catch it. This year is the "Blast Bow", or something of the sort. Think Nerf Darts moving at roughly Mach 6. The kids are excited.
The meeting was great. We had an extremely active summer, so I had a bunch of awards to hand out. I even got to give belt loops to a couple of first year Tigers, because we had recruitment in the Spring. 11 out of our 18 kids won the Summertime Activity award for participating in at least three summer events. 4 of those 18 joined after we had all those events, so really it was 11 of 14. What a summer. I'm really excited for this year. We have a day at the Goehner trains, a star party at a University observatory, several camping trips, and of course, the Pinewood Derby. I've got my Dremel back, so we're going to have some fun with the derby this year. Man, I LOVE being a Cubmaster!
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