TOUGH WEEK FOR THE ACLU, HUH?:

Scouts' sales tactic outside ACLU becomes pop smash: After radio celebrity plugs Chesterfield troop's booth, popcorn orders top $28,000 (MARK BOWES, December 17, 2004, Richmond TIMES-DISPATCH)

A friendly jab at the American Civil Liberties Union has turned into a financial bonanza for a tiny nine-member Boy Scout troop from Chesterfield County.

Troop 828, with an unexpected boost on Wednesday from nationally syndicated talk show host Glenn Beck, watched its struggling popcorn sales explode.

Scouts at a downtown booth had to call for fresh supplies. A Web site was flooded with orders from buyers in 39 states.

At last count, sales had topped $28,000. That set a record for the Boy Scouts' Heart of Virginia Council.

Last year the troop sold less than $300 worth of popcorn.

The windfall came after Beck got wind of the Scouts' decision to set up a booth near the ACLU's Virginia headquarters in downtown Richmond.

For years the ACLU has raised legal questions as to how closely the government should be aligned with the Boy Scouts of America.

"We're kind of a conservative troop," said Scoutmaster Jim Carpenter, whose two-year-old unit meets at St. Joseph Catholic Church. "They're a very devout group of young men, and God and country are extremely important to them."

"And at one of our Monday night meetings, they decided that it would be real cool to sell popcorn in front of the ACLU. This was their idea. We're a boy-run troop."

Scouts or gays just isn't a tough choice.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 18, 2004 9:37 PM