Oregon girl barred from selling mistletoe but told OK to beg

PORTLAND, Ore. — Driven by her budding entrepreneurial instincts, an 11-year-old Oregon girl wanted to help her dad pay for her braces by selling mistletoe over the holidays, but she got tangled up in red tape instead.

Madison Root, of Portland, hit the downtown market on Saturday morning to sell the plants that she said she cut and wrapped herself from her uncle’s farm in Newberg, Ore.

"I felt like I could help my dad with the money," she told ABC News affiliate KATU News.

But a private security guard hired by Portland Saturday Market asked her to stop selling the mistletoe because city rules ban conducting business or soliciting at a park without proper approval and documentation.

Chapter 10.12 of the Portland city code states that soliciting or conducting business includes the display of  ”goods, or descriptions or depictions of goods or services, with the intent to engage any member of the public in a transaction for the sale of any good or service.”

WSBTV