TRADEREE ALLOWS OLD AND NEW BOY SCOUTS TO SWAP MEMORABILIA

For Boy Scouts, past and present, who have a knack for taking advantage of chances of a lifetime, the VFW Hall is the place to be this weekend.

Both current and former Boy Scouts will participate in the second annual Troop 5 Traderee, a fair designed to help Boy Scouts sell and trade Scout memorabilia.

The Traderee will begin at 6 p.m. Friday. Doors will reopen at 8 a.m. Saturday and will remain open until the last person leaves the building.

Former Boy Scouts or vendors who ply their trade at the VFW Post on Kingshighway will receive all of the profits generated from booth sales. Scouts from Troop 5, sponsored by the VFW post, will receive all of the money raised from booth rental, admission and refreshment sales.

However, Virgil Jones, who will volunteer his services and check out the memorabilia, said the money isn't the primary motivation for Boy Scouts to participate in Traderees.

"For the person trading or buying something, it's the chance to recover something that meant a great deal to them when they were a Boy Scout," Jones said. "Some badges mean a lot to you if there was an important experience behind it. There are some hard-core traders who attend six to eight of these a year."

"For one of the older Boy Scouts in Troop 5, the Traderee represents the chance to afford the experience of a lifetime," Jones said, referring to the World Jamboree in the Netherlands Aug. 1-12. "The entire trip costs $3,500, so the Traderee wouldn't pay for everything, but it helps out," Jones said.

Boy Scouts from Troop 5 are allowed to divide proceeds from the Traderee to attend functions like a 10-day hike through Cimarron, N.M.

Jones said he has grown fond of arrow patches. "They signify a club within the Boy Scouts and mean a lot to me," Jones said. "For someone else it might be a merit badge they earned but somehow lost over the years. The Traderee is a way to get the merit badge back into a collection."

Jones said only Boy Scouts between the ages of 13 and 17 are allowed to participate in the World Jamboree. "Since it happens only once every four years, you only get one chance at it your entire life," Jones said. If a Scout's 13th birthday would fall on the year of a Jamboree, there would be the opportunity for two in a lifetime. "But that doesn't happen very often."

Admission for adults is $1. Boys Scouts who wear their uniform will be admitted free.

"It's a great deal for everybody," Troop 5 Scoutmaster Jerry Hampton said. "Vendors pay a nominal fee to rent a booth and they get to keep all of their profits. The Scouts get 100 percent of the money we take in."

Vendors from eight states will converge on the VFW Post to sell their wares. Vendors from Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois and Kentucky will sell Boy Scout memorabilia.

"We've got nearly three times the number of people coming this year compared to last year," Hampton said. "These are held throughout the United States every year, but very few take place in the Midwest."

Scouts from Troop 5 will make the final decision on what they want to spend the money on.

"The older boys will decide," Hampton said. "We're taking a week-long canoe trip on the Current River later this year. That might be something they'll want to use the money for."

Hampton said he organized a Traderee 10 years ago. However, he was left with a much different impression his first time around.

"I tried to do it all by myself, and it just didn't seem like it was worth it," he said. "Last year we got a support group together with parents of Scouts, Boy Scouts and volunteers, and it worked out much better."

Hampton, a member of the four Boy Scout trading associations, was able to advertise for this weekend's Traderee free. "You reach a lot of vendors that way," he said.