Scouting America’s Adventure West Council was planning on holding several hundreds of boxes of popcorn in a warehouse in east Loveland ahead of the scouts’ sales season. But when the company that owned the warehouse went out of business, the team and their nearly 80 pallets of boxes stacked several feet high were left without a place to hold and distribute the popcorn to the many kids ready to sell.
“We had been looking for a location and were actually really struggling to find a vacant warehouse we could use,” said Nate Dutson CEO scout executive with the Adventure West Council. “And KidsPak came to the rescue.”
The local nonprofit opened the doors of its new location, cleared out space in the middle and welcomed in the scouts and their many, many boxes of popcorn.
Earlier this week, KidsPak took in a total of 76 pallets of boxed up popcorn so Scouting America could house what needed to be picked up and provide an efficient location for scouts to come and get what they needed.
Tom Carrigan, executive director of the nonprofit, said that late last week they received a call from a “supporter” of the scouts asking if they would be willing to help out and take in the popcorn for a few days and allow scouts from across the area to come and pick it up.
“A couple hours later we had all the details worked out and we’re thrilled to help them,” he said.
Over two days this week, the 76 pallets of popcorn arrived and were brought into the new KidsPak warehouse in north Loveland. Dave Best, district executive for the Bighorn District of which includes Larimer County, said last year it took between 10 and 12 hours to unload all the popcorn they had. At KidsPak, with the help of volunteers and an electronic pallet jack, it took less than four hours.
Dave Best, right, a district executive with Scouting America, brings a pallet of popcorn out of the warehouse as volunteer district popcorn kernel Sela Young, left, prepares to help people picking up their orders Wednesday outside the KidsPak warehouse in north Loveland. Scouting America had to move out of its last warehouse for popcorn sales this year, and KidsPak offered to let them use the space in its new warehouse. (Jenny Sparks/Loveland Reporter-Herald)
Best said having KidsPak to help them out has been “an absolute answered prayer and just a blessing.”
“We have been so thankful for them letting us use this facility but also helping me unload and helping us do other stuff that they didn’t have to do,” he said.
“It was huge,” said Josh Brown, assistant director of field service at Scouting America’s Adventure West Council. “I look at it as a nonprofit helping out another nonprofit.”
With popcorn dropped off Tuesday and Wednesday, scouts and their families — from those in Loveland to scouts from as far as Estes Park and Erie — were able to start picking up product and taking it back to their packs.
Kara Billings’ son Myles had to pick up $20,000 worth of popcorn for his troop. Myles said he enjoys selling popcorn, and even showed off his 3D-printed objects he made with the printer he bought from selling last year.
“It’s just fun,” the 9-year-old Loveland boy said of selling popcorn.
Throughout Wednesday, cars, trucks and trailers came through to pack up popcorn and head out. With the help of Scouting America employees and volunteers — and pallet jacks, electronic and otherwise — boxes were quickly pulled out of the warehouse, loaded up and taken away.
Dutson said having KidsPak step up to help out the scouts was wonderful, adding what they did was “very scout-like.”
“It means a lot to us,” he said. “It means a lot to the kids and we can’t thank them enough.”
As people swung by to get popcorn throughout Wednesday afternoon, Carrigan said the team was just excited to help out.
“We are supported by the community at large, and I think this is one of the things we look forward to,” he said. “The situation came up and it is just a natural ‘yes, we can make the adjustments.’ We have the space and we are thrilled to be part of it.”
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Publish date : 2024-08-23 15:08:00
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