NORTON SHORES, Mich. — One boy scout in Norton shores has been one of the top sellers in the nation for the last five years, and he's been using his sales to pay it forward.
Mason Schlafer's popcorn delivery runs in 2016 placed him third in the nation in popcorn sales, and it was a mark reached by accident.
"We did like $22,000 worth of delivers for like three weeks straight," Schlafer said.
"3rd in the nation wasn't something we were tracking," said Matt Schlafer, Mason's Dad. "He actually was just trying to be first in the state that year...then the guy called him from the company and said, 'Hey, you know, you're, you're really close to this 13 state regional records that your counsels, a part of so he went and toppled that,' and that just wound up that he was third in the nation."
Since then, Mason led the nation in boy scout popcorn sales in 2017, 2019, and 2020. In 2018, he was second by 56 dollars.
It's part of an impressive resume for the 15-year-old, whose already reached the rank of Eagle Scout.
While Mason has racked up more than a quarter million dollars in sales the last three years, he isn't pocketing that money.
Instead, he's donated much of it.
"He and I started talking about giving back paying it forward and philanthropy and if he understood those concepts or words and he didn't so it gave me an opportunity as his dad to put that bug in his ear," Matt said.
Mason's popcorn sales let his troop buy new tents and camping gear, purchase a trailer, and build a pole barn to store their supplies. He's donated thousands for other boy scouts who couldn't afford to go to camp.
"He's helped out a couple of kids that their house burned down before Christmas a few years ago," Matt said. "So they could buy Christmas gifts for mom and dad and grandma and each other."
With Mason aiming to be the best popcorn salesman in the nation for a third straight year, you can bet he'll be paying it forward once again.
"He's just, he's amazing, to say the least"Matt said. "I'm not sure there's words that sum up exactly what he is or what he does."
Mason isn't talking about how much popcorn he's sold this year so far, saying he doesn't want to tip off the other boy scouts he's competing against.
He did say the roughly 100 boxes of supplies in his basement are emptied each week.
