A journey further afield potential awaits you if you haven’t already purchased your Christmas tree because one of Santa Monica’s most trusted sources has unexpectedly sold out already.
Every holiday season, Troop 2 Santa Monica of the Boy Scouts of America, sets up a lot where the boys, together with parents and volunteers, sell freshly cut Noble and Douglas Firs from Oregon, wreaths and other festive paraphernalia and normally they just about manage to clear their stock before Christmas Day rolls around once more.
However, this year, instead of the more usual two-week period it takes, every tree and decorative item was sold — including numerous resupplies — by 4pm on Sunday. Much like previous years, this year the troop was able to set up in the space in front of the Staghorn nursery at 2923 Wilshire Blvd, formerly the site of Jerry’s Liquor.
Janet McLaughlin, volunteer and mother of a 16-year-old Star scout, Lucky Basseri, says that she’d heard folk say that they’d come all the way from Mar Vista and Pacific Palisades to get their trees here.
“The boys unloaded a huge delivery on Thanksgiving weekend, then several hundred more trees the following week, a huge truckload Wednesday night, then another Friday night. At 4 o’clock on Sunday we sold our last tree to a young couple who were celebrating their baby's first Christmas,” she said, adding, “We all burst into applause, handed them free ornaments and a wooden and pine reindeer made by our boys, and popped a bottle of champagne. For me, closing down the lot is always bittersweet, but we'll be back again next year.”
There are many reasons why this is such a beneficial exercise, least of all the residents of Santa Monica get to purchase high quality Christmas trees, but the boys of Troop 2 learn all manner of important life lessons, including business and organizational management, human interaction and even just a little bit of labor-intensive work.
“Working at the Troop 2 Boy Scout Christmas Tree lot teaches me teamwork, leadership, customer service, salesmanship, and the value of hard work,” said Basseri, adding, “It was a delightful experience to be able to provide some Christmas joy and happiness for our customers. I'm particularly proud of how many trees we sold in such a short amount of time, I'm so excited to be part of such a great troop.”
Added to which, all profits and tips that the boys receive are used to fund, frankly amazing activities for each age group.
“The goal is to provide funds for general troop activities throughout the year, like summer camp, which will probably be a week in California somewhere and then there’s backpacking or canoeing expeditions, like a 50 mile trek,” said Roger O’Brient, Christmas Tree Lot Chair.
“Last summer we organized a trip for younger scouts to the Ozark Mountains in Missouri and we canoed down a river for 50 miles and some caving as well and he older scouts circumnavigated Catalina Island in these large war canoes,” O’Brient said, adding that next year a trip to Peru is planned where the older boys will spend a week working with an indigenous Amazonian tribe that the Scout foundation helps.
“I've been volunteering at the Troop 2 tree lot for a dozen years, and look forward to it more every time. All the customers are cheerful and so happy when they see our beautiful selection. We have people who have been buying their Christmas trees from us for 50 years,” McLaughlin said.
“They really appreciate having the boys help them pick out trees, tie them onto their cars, or deliver them to their homes. And in turn, they feel good about helping fund troop activities [and] all the proceeds after expenses goes to the boys, none of us take salaries. This year, we sold hundreds of feet of garland, wreaths, reindeers, gnomes, and nearly two thousand trees. We couldn't stock them fast enough.”
