By Eiliana Wright
Tipp City Foundation gifted a local Scouting America troop $500 for new cooking equipment. The money upgraded kitchen equipment for Scouting America Troop 586, chartered by Robinson Family YMCA, to sell cobbler at the 67th Annual Tipp City Mum Festival.
Each September at the Mum Festival, for about the past 20 years, folks line up in front of Troop 586’s tent to wait for plates of sticky cobbler. Until more recently, scouts baked the yummy dessert in Dutch ovens over a live fire. According to Jim Ridgeway, Scoutmaster since 2011, this will be the third year they’ve tried a different system.
The first year with no fire was an experiment—and it went well, despite concerns that their cobbler flavor would change. “It tastes exactly the same, and it was cheaper on our end,” Rideway said.
The next year, it went even better, so finally, Ridgeway said, “Let's get some money and let's buy the right stuff, and do this right.” This will be the third year with no live fire, and with the grant money, the troop has purchased two new electronic broilers, updated their booth sign, and added on some cooking equipment like spatulas, spoons and whips for making the cake.
“I love them and they're awesome, but they're so hard on equipment,” Ridgeway said while laughing. “Imagine a 12-year-old having full run [of] your kitchen, right?”
Kyle Stump, a freshman entering Tipp City High School this year, and a Senior Patrol Leader for Troop 586, said recruitment has been “really good” the past two years. There are now 41 scouts in Troop 586, according to Ridgeway.
“It's been a little bit difficult to manage, but we're figuring it out,” Stump said. “I bet some new equipment might help.”
Scouting America has 12 points of Scout Law, which are 12 values all scouts must agree to abide by. “Thrifty is a part of that, and so we try to pay our own way for everything.” Ridgeway said.
A fraction of the Mum Festival fundraiser profit will fund overall scout expenses like patches and merit badges, Ridgeway said. The rest go into “scout accounts.”
Monthly Scouting America camping trips cost individuals about $30-$50 each, and just the annual summer camp individually costs scouts $400. These individual scout accounts, held with the Robinson Family YMCA, help scouts pay to participate.
“It really helps us out a lot. I know for me working the Mum Festival and doing other fundraisers paid for half of the summer camp last year,” Stump said. Ridgeway also said the money can go toward new hiking boots or camping equipment.
The main fundraiser for Scouting America is popcorn sales. However, as Ridgeway laughed, he said that when scouts get to him, it’s a bit harder for popcorn sales to turn a profit. “When you're six to nine [years old], you can sell popcorn to anybody because you're the cute little kid,” Rideway said. “By the time I get them, I mean they're older and they're uglier, right? So they have a much harder time selling popcorn. Not little cute kids anymore, right? And it just didn't work. It just… it didn't work.”
Cobbler, however, is a treat scouts regularly enjoy on their camping trips. Ridgeway also found out that for mere cents a plate, he could provide boxes of yellow cake and cans of pie filling and turn a much larger profit. According to Rideway, the cobbler proceeds of 2025 brought in about $2,500.
The cobbler sale at the end of September is also just the finale of the troop’s month-long fundraising.
“Basically, all eyes turn to the Mum Festival starting in August,” Ridgeway said.
That’s when scouts paint the famous mum motifs that dot the pavement throughout Tipp City. Twenty years ago, the painted mums were done by a small group of folks. After realizing that this was a perfect job for scouts, the Mum Festival committee struck a deal with the troop where the committee pays for materials, and the troop gets 60% of the profit.
For the month of August scouts go door to door to advertise stenciled mum motifs, then try to finish it all one week before the Festival. Just last year, Troop 586 painted over 900 mums on pavement throughout the City, priced at $25 each. “It’s a huge fundraiser,” Ridgeway said. “10s of 1000s of dollars.”
Scouting America Troop 586 will be at the Mum Festival again this year in Tipp
City near the roundhouse in City Park. Cobbler is $6 a plate, and scoops of ice cream are available for $1.
Folks can also visit the website of Troop 586 to inquire about their own stenciled mum motif at https://tippcitymumfestival.com/adopt-a-mum-boy-scout-troop-586/.
Rideway said the fundraiser is about what’s best for the kids. “If turning out cobblers is the answer, let's turn out some cobblers,” he said.