Mistletoe Picked, Packaged, Peddled,
As Cub Scouts Secure Operating Funds
KLAMATH FALLS, OREGON', Sl'XDAY
four youths. Armed with saws,
ropes and inexperience, we
took off early on Sunday, Dec.
8. for tlie mistletoe country.
We arrived in good shape,
spotted our target, and headed
for the hills.
From a distance, mistletoe
hunting looks easy because it
seems to hang within easy
reaching in the trees, b u t
surprising as it sounds, those
trees grow as one approaches
them and when you get there,
they are 20 feet above the
ground and always out on the
end of the thinnest limbs.
1 promptly manned the
ground observation post, and
the others "not so experienced"
headed into the upper branches.
Alter a lengthy skirmish,
many anxious moments and
considerable scratches and
bruises later, ue had a pickup
load and were on our way
home.
At this point, we turned the
job back to the den mothers
with an expressive sigh of hav
ing clone our bit for the cause.
Cub Scouts packaged the mis
tletoe and then were off on
their sales campaign to friends
and relations.
Each year, the project turns
out to be one of the most ef
fective money making projects
for the Roosevelt School Cub
Scout Pack 3. It's an excellent
example of youtb at work (fath
ers, tool earning their own funds
to finance their own operations.
, DECEMBER 22. 1963 -t9&B&' tSf A"
OUT ON A LIMB Frank Slices, 844 Eldorado, chair
man of Cub Scout Pack 3, spots a nest of mistletoe out
on the end of a long, long limb. With saw in hand he
inches out onto the branch. This was one of many careful,
hazardous trips for Frank as a party of adults and Cub
Scouts collected mistletoe for their annual sales project.
A parisitic growth, mistletoe has become an accepted
Christmas greenery. The custom of using mistletoe goes
back to early times when the European species was held
to be sacred by the Druids and the Germans, and was
credited with magical properties by the Celts.
By FLOYD L. WYNNE '
(Text and Photos)
Den mothers have llieir mo
ments of trials and triumphs
with a band of happy, boister
ous Cub Scouts, but Cub cout
fathers come in for their
share of tribulations, also.
Such an event is the mistle
toe gathering time that rolls
around the early part of IVcem
ber. A few years ago some
thoughtless Cub Scout commit
tee member came up from
nowhere with the suggestion
that the pack sell mistletoe as
a money-making project.
The idea was embraced
wholeheartedly, and the sober
ing afterthought was where to
find and how to secure the mis
tletoe. This year marked this mem
ber as a veteran of the mistle
toe brigade and entitled me
to an extra helping of mcrcurn
chrome as a service award.
However, being an old hand at
these types of campaigns gives
one some privilege and I auto
matically converted this into
the "on-thc-ground" privilege.
To the non-mistletoers this
may sound senseless, hut to
those who now have weathered
the c a m p a i g n it has great
meaning.
The first several sorties of
this type, f tried my hand at
climbing trees, scraping shins,
pelting caught in branches and
falling out of trees, but not this
year. I had a privileged "on-the-ground"
status.
While others inched and
climbed and sawed and hoped,
I handled the ground chores,
such as calling up precautions
about getting out on thin limbs
for fat men, and tossing up
such dropped items as saws
while collecting misletoo that
rained down.
Our party was five adults and
MISTLETOE ADVENTURE Cub Scout members of
Roosevelt Pack 3 and fathers comprise this mistletoe
hunting expedition that traversed the Green Springs to
find the proper greenery. From right, Marvin Reed (back
E-WWW HMD:.
aw
to camera); Jay Dent, Jimmy DeNault lin front; Frank
Sikos, Wes Hunt, Tom Reed, Robert Wynne) and Peter
Sikes. Neither the DeNault or Sikes youth are Cub Scouts,
but aided in the project.
OFF ON THE HUNT The
heads off down the road toward a distant group of trees
where the mistletoe can be seen hanging in the upper
...... ... .. f n1 . , fir m ff , , ,"V.ii.itv t"
mistletoe hunting party I branches. Childhood tree-climbing experience came
handy for the mistletoe seekers.
READY FOR PACKAGING Mark Drew, son of Mr.
and Mrs. Frank Drew, 1991 Van Ness Avenue, examines
one branch of mistletoe. A member of the Cub Scout
den of Mrs. Wes Hunt, I860 Manianita, Mark aided in
the packaging and the selling.
DOING THE PACKAGING These Cub Scouts of the den of Mrs. Wet Hunt, I860
Manianita, are busy packaging the mistletoe for the sales drive. Left to right, Mark
Dent, Robert Wynne, Jeff Thomas, Jos Martin, Brad Hunt, John Hosley (back of
head visible); John Hanson and Mark Drew. The assembly line method produced 80
packages in about an hour's time.
INTO THE WILD BLUE YONDER Wes Hunt, I860 Manianita, works his way care
fully up the thinning branches to a bunch of mistletoe. The greenery is most easily
spotted just below the snow line where frees have shed their leaves and only the
mistletoe remains. The denuded trees are I'lhouetted against a background of mourv.
tains with snow covered peaks.
wATncKINO IT Ur Attar the paintul sortie into the branches hat produced a pile
of mistletoe, it mutt be gathered up and carried to the pickup. Here, Jimmy DeNault,
left, and Peter Sikes, gather it up. Neither boy is a Cub Scout, but lent a hand in the
expedition anyway. Peter it e former member of the Roosevelt School Cub Pack 3
and is a son of the Pack chairman. DeNault it the son of Mr. egd Mrt. O. A. DeNault.
NON-CLIMBERS AT WORK Those who worked from the ground up had to rely on
other methods to tecure the mistletoe from tho tipt of the treat. Thit ii one method
which it not recommended. It utiliiet a rope and rockt to bring the tip down
within reach but the rewardt were tmall from thit method, even though eontiderably
lest risky.