Boy Scouts sell Christmas trees

MOSES LAKE — Rick Willard was taking down the lights from Boy Scout Troop 98’s tree lot along Stratford Road on Saturday in Moses Lake.

“We’ve been here since the day after Thanksgiving,” he said. “We started with 400 trees and we got down to about 85 to 90 trees.”

Willard, a member of the scout committee, said with the cold, the prevalence of tree lots and artificial trees, this was a rough year to sell trees. He’s been involved with the scouts in Moses Lake for 15 years.

“We’ve been selling trees for 10-plus years,” he said. “A lot of people haven’t wanted to come out because it’s been so darn cold … Today’s not so bad with the sun being out.”

While the single-digit and low-teen temperatures have made it tough to sell trees, Willard said this he remembers one year where there was snow and it was cold.

“When it’s bitter cold and there’s snow on everything, so it’s wet and cold, that’s hard,” he said.

The troop was selling the trees for about $24 to $70 a tree, depending on the type. On Saturday they were $10 a tree.

“I’d hate to see (the trees) get burned,” he said.

Volunteers signed up for shifts ranging from two hours to all day.

The profits from the trees go to help send both Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts to camp and purchase cooking kits and other things, Willard said. He volunteers because he sees the scouts as a positive thing for the boys. Willard was involved in the scouts in Alaska.

“There’s too many negative things for kids to get into,” he said. “This gets kids off their X-Box 360s and outside … I’ve had five boys and they were all involved (in the scouts).”

Willard wanted to thank the community for its support of the tree lot through the years, including the owners of the lot they sold the trees on and the people who bought trees from them.

“We have people who’ve come out here every year,” he said. “We appreciate that.”