Lafayette Boy Scout Troop Opens Up Its Christmas Tree Lot

It must be the holiday season.

Lafayette Boy Scout Troop 224 is selling Christmas trees.

On Friday, as they've done every year since 1958, the scouts opened up their tree lot the day after Thanksgiving.

This is the second consecutive year the lot is on East Bay Municipal Utility District property on the western end of Mt. Diablo Boulevard. It's not too far from Orchard Nursery and it's next to the Lafayette Community Garden.

The lot is full of Noble and Douglas firs as well as Nordmann and Grand trees. They range from 2 feet to 9 feet tall. The shorter trees cost under $50 while some of the larger ones top $100.

Cliff Wagener, a scout leader who volunteers as the tree lot manager, said they plan to sell their usual number of 850 trees that are trucked in from Oregon.

They'll sell until Dec. 20 or they run out of trees. If there any left over trees, they're donated to facilities such as nursing homes.

There are 45 scouts ages 11 to 18 in Troop 224. All of them will do volunteer work at the lot over the next three weeks.

The tree sales generate a $30,000 profit that helps pay for trips and camps the scout troop attends during the year.

Wagener added the lot provides a connection between the troop and the community. It also gives the scouts a chance to discover what the retail world is like.

"It gives them a really good experience on how a small business works," he said.

The scouts almost lost their tree lot three years ago. The lot used to be located next to the veterans building. However, they lost the space during the reconstruction.

Wagener said it was tough finding a location in town that the troop could afford. Then, the EBMUD land was made available.

"We thought we might lose the tree lot altogether," he said. "We ended up with the best location we could have gotten."

The lot officially opened at noon on Friday, but it had its usual share of early shoppers.

Claire Phillips, the troop's treasurer, said there is a Lafayette family that is always the first customer. They arrived at 7:30 a.m. as the troop was setting up the lot.

Another person who lives on a hill overlooking the lot saw them setting up and drove on down.

"A lot of people come here to support the Boy Scouts," said Phillips.

John Hubinger of Orinda is a regular customer. He's a former Scout leader whose family has had a tradition since he was a kid of buying their Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.

And he always purchases his tree from Troop 224.

"It's local and it's the Scouts," he said.