SAUGUS — In a year as difficult as this one has been, a little holiday respite could be just the tonic to get through it. And what better symbol of that than a Christmas tree.
That’s the Boy Scout Troop 62 leader Chris Finnie sees it. His scouts have their Christmas tree stand up and running at the intersection of Ballard Street and Route 107. And, said Finnie, it’s been busy. In fact, the troop is seeing its highest numbers of tree sales ever.
“Everything’s been fantastic,” he said, adding that this season’s wildly successful Christmas tree sales have been a bright spot during an otherwise trying year.
“It’s not just been a good season for us, but for every (tree farm) from what I’ve heard,” he said. “I think everyone just has so much time on their hands, or maybe they’re just looking forward to seeing 2020 end.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the North Shore in March, the troop, which is currently raising money for a trip to Alaska in 2022, has been hit hard by virus safety precautions that make fundraising events of any kind difficult to pull off.
The Christmas tree lot, however, offers ample space for social distancing, and since opening for business two weeks ago on Nov. 23, Finnie said the troop has already seen two-thirds more sales compared to the same time last year, with a steady stream of customers that is showing no signs of letting up any time soon.
“We’ve been doing this for six years, and looking at the historical data, this is the best week we’ve had,” he said. “It feels good because we started this thing from the ground up.”
As they helped load trees into cars Wednesday evening, scouts Jake D’Eon, 14, and Finnie’s son, Nicholas Finnie, 18, agreed that this season has been particularly busy, adding that sales have grown noticeably with each passing year.
“The first year we started with about 40 trees and were selling out of a (small) trailer, huddled together,” said Nicholas Finnie, an Eagle Scout who has volunteered at the lot every year since its founding. “We did pretty well and we started building up until we had more than 430 trees last year.”
Sales aside, the elder Finnie said being able to hold such events, which have been few and far between throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, are also crucial to scout development and offer troop members an opportunity to learn responsibility and expand their knowledge base.
“We keep track of who works, and if you put in 40 hours worth of work, then you’re going to get 40 hours worth of subsidy,” Finnie said. “It’s great. We’re able to see the kids, and we’re able to get them to come down and have a sense of ownership (over the operation), because this is theirs.”
