The Theodore Roosevelt Council of Boy Scouts, based in Massapequa, recently kicked off their annual popcorn drive.

This is the fourth year that the Nassau County Council has participated in the drive, which has been run by the Boy Scouts of America across the country for over a decade. This is a voluntary fundraiser that individual Scouting units may participate in. According to Jerry Greene, finance director for the Theodore Roosevelt Council of Boy Scouts of America, approximately 50 percent of the units in the Theodore Roosevelt Council, which consists of Boy Scout troops from all of Nassau County, participate in the popcorn drive.

The Cub Scout packs, Boy Scout troops, and Explorer posts can get involved in the drive two ways. The first option units have is to sell the popcorn through the Show and Sell method. When the Scouts do this, they have the actual product in hand, set up booths and sell the popcorn in areas such as the train station, outside grocery stores or outside banks or anywhere else there may be a market for the product. There are 19 Nassau County units participating in the Show and Sell. The other option that approximately 150 units of Scouts in the county are participating in is take order. With this method, the boys go out door-to-door and take orders for the seven different types of product.

The product line that the Scouting units will be selling, this year, includes a white chocolate caramel crunch which is a new product that the Boy Scouts of America test marketed with different councils, white chocolate, chocolate caramel crunch, caramel corn with almonds and pecans, caramel corn with almonds which all come in decorative collector's tins. The boys will also be selling a microwave butter popcorn, a light-butter microwave popcorn, and a designer, decorative pail of popping kernels. The products are produced by Weaver Popcorn Company, which has a whole line called Trail's End specifically for the Boy Scout sales. The products range in price from $7-$15.

Greene explained that the popcorn sale is similar to the Girl Scout Cookie Sale but whereas the Girl Scouts, because the troops are owned by the National Council, can mandate the units to sell cookies, the Boy Scouts of America, whose units are owned by community organizations cannot mandate the members to participate.

Although they cannot mandate the popcorn sale, many units across the country choose to participate in the sale because a large portion of the profits go back to the individual units. According to Greene, the units earn 35 percent commission of the sale price and the local councils earn about 28 percent. The rest of the money goes to paying for the product and sales materials. Greene stated, "This is actually a lot higher than most of the fund raisers that units might be able to get themselves involved with."

Greene noted that for many units, this fund raiser is so successful that it takes care of their finances for the rest of the year, although some units choose to do several different fund raisers rather than just the popcorn sale. He added that the popcorn drive is also a good educational experience for the participants. With the sales kit the boys receive a comic book type of brochure that provides them with helpful hints on how to be safe when selling the product, and how to be polite and courteous and present themselves and the product.

Boys are encouraged to sell as much as they can through a prize and rank advancement program. "If the unit puts some incentive to it and creates a campaign atmosphere with it, they can have a lot of fun," noted Greene.

The popcorn sale will take place through the month of October and the products will be delivered around Thanksgiving.