Many lodges across the country have different traditions for raising money to host activities for their members. Some have Christmas tree lots during the holidays and others hold spaghetti dinners. Some lodges, however, have less traditional and more unique traditions for raising funds. One great example of innovation at the lodge level for fundraising is from Malibu Lodge of the Western Los Angeles County Council in Los Angeles, California, which recently held a Cub Scout “Spook-o-ree” fundraiser. At this event, different chapters from the lodge each set up games and haunted house rooms at the council camp for Cub Scouts from all around the area to have fun and get spooked.
The “Spook-o-ree” fundraiser was held at the end of October, right before Halloween. It has been sponsored by Arrowmen of the lodge for the past four years at Camp Josepho in Pacific Palisades, CA. Each chapter brought a game for Cub Scouts to play or set up haunted rooms to entertain the Cub Scouts as they walked through.
“In the months leading up to Spook-o-ree, the lodge was constantly reminding chapter chiefs to bring this to their chapters to brainstorm ideas,” Malibu Lodge Chief Ian Hammock said. “We ended up with an animal graveyard, a funky light show and a spooky maze as our room themes.”
In the animal graveyard, the Ta To Ka Dan Chapter brought and set up different animal skeleton props (including a horse) and animal tombstones. There were also various decorations around the room it was in. Inside was a light show; the Alliklik Chapter set up many different colored lights flashing against the almost pitch black room with some spooky elements included. There were people dressed up in costumes prepared to scare the Cub Scouts as they entered. In the spooky maze that the Serranos Chapter created, there was a guide at the entrance who would walk the Cub Scouts through the maze with decorations, occasional jump scares and candy at the end as a reward for making it through. As for the games, Ian said that the lodge had a beanbag toss with a special Malibu theme set up for the Cub Scouts to play. “They were throwing beanbags into a shark’s mouth - which is our lodge’s totem,” Ian remarked. He also noted that they also had a spider toss set up where a spider was thrown into a web and if it stuck, they received candy. “They seemed to enjoy it a lot,” Ian added.
Later in the day, a few of the older Arrowmen gathered all of the Cub Scouts and took them on a hike down to an abandoned barn on the camp’s property, which was said to be haunted. After telling stories around the old barn for a while, they took the Cub Scouts back to camp and fed them lunch.
After the Spook-o-ree had concluded, the lodge held its annual tradition of electing its new officers for 2017 at their Lodge Summit. Ian explained that with the recent addition of this Spook-o-ree fundraiser, the lodge has had a higher turnout for lodge elections at Lodge Summit. “In the past, we struggled to fill positions,” Ian recalled. “This year, we had four Arrowmen going head to head to claim the title of lodge chief!” Not only is this a great opportunity for Malibu to raise funds to support lodge activities every year but it is helping to strengthen the leadership of the lodge to build for a better tomorrow.