Board of Education honors top popcorn seller

Story and Photo by Alice Gerard

Senior Contributing Writer

At its Sept. 25 meeting, the Grand Island Board of Education honored Grayson Shelp, 13, for his dedication to selling popcorn for Boy Scout Troop 510. During this past summer, Grayson sold $15,000 worth of popcorn, breaking his own record that he set two years ago.

“Over the many years, I have sold over $60,000 (worth) of popcorn,” Grayson said. “In the past three years, I’ve been the top seller east of the Mississippi.”

Grayson said he started selling popcorn at Gui’s Lumber and has returned there every year since he was 8 years old. He has sold popcorn every year, even during the pandemic.

Grayson’s goal is to earn enough money to attend the World Boy Scout Jamboree in Poland in 2027.

The trip to Poland is important to Grayson because “During the summer, I went to the National Jamboree, and I went there because I sold popcorn, and my wonderful dad (Edwin Shelp Jr.) was able to come with me because of my sales. That made me have so much fun with patch trading, mile-long zip line, and all these other things. I even got a merit badge done as a Boy Scout.”

“It’s nice to see the support from the community with how they’ve bought popcorn from me so I can go places,” Grayson said.

School District Superintendent Brian Graham said, “Grayson, I can’t thank you enough for what you’re doing. It’s quite remarkable.”