Mack Keating also contributed to this article.
With the Class of 2022 (CO’22) prom nearing, seniors are creating and implementing more fundraisers. During February, two of these fundraisers took place, including selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Valentine’s Day baked goods. While each class sale has had its own profits, the food consistently sold the best, hence the return of it.
The Krispy Kreme fundraiser is one of the more notable sellers, as it comes back annually. This is not the first sighting of a Krispy Kreme fundraiser for the CO'22, though. Back in December, the same product was sold for the same cause. During that sale, over $1.7k was raised, out of the goal of $10k. Due to its immense popularity and success, the product was brought back, with a raised price from $13 to $15 per box of a dozen doughnuts.
Editor-in-Chief and Class President Julie Huynh, Editor-in-Chief of Print and Design Carlos Aragon, Tivian Nguyen and Mayada Giha were among the myriad of seniors who helped run the table. In hopes of replicating the success of the first sale, the seniors restocked the product.
“The first Krispy Kreme fundraiser we had, we raised a lot more than expected. We were taken by surprise in a good way,” Nguyen explained. Huynh elaborated on this, noting the people running this behind the scenes. “We brought up the idea the first time. I think the fundraiser has always been something that the school has done before in the past, so we reached out to Ms. Quinn who used to run it. And then she kind of helped us get started with that and we decided that it would be something that we can definitely do.”
Class Advisor Daniel Jurkowski, who was in charge of the fundraiser, expatiated on Quinn’s work. “I was talking to her…we were talking about fundraising and fundraising ideas, and she brought up the idea of Krispy Kreme. So, we reached out to them. One of our student council officers, Mayada, reached out to them and got more information. And then, we just kinda went from there.”
This process was not as easy as it seems, though: the doughnuts are produced and stored in Connecticut, where someone must drive down in order to pick up and distribute the products. “Thankfully we have a dedicated advisor that was willing to go to his full extent to help the class out. We are very thankful for him for everything he has done. Without him, we would not be where we are now,” Nguyen professed.
Financially, fundraising is on the right track for their prom goals. “We made a good amount of money last time; we made around $2,000 the first time we did it. So, a couple kids reached out to us and asked if we were gonna do it again. And, it’s an easy fundraiser; we honestly don’t have to do much--too much work: so, just collect, sell boxes, we go pick them up, we distribute them and it’s basically free money.” He also stated, “We didn’t sell as many dozens of doughnuts as we did last time, but I would still say it’s a big success because we made over $1,400 which is perfect because it goes right to prom.” With the added price to the doughnuts, the class still made enough money.
“The purpose of the fundraiser is to fundraise as much money as we can for prom. Everything that we raise right now, every single dollar, is going towards prom--to make prom as affordable for as many kids as we can,” Jurkowski detailed. Currently, prom tickets are aiming to be under $80, with a ballpark range from $70-90.
Another issue Nguyen brought up was how “not enough people support or help the class, especially in our own grade. Whether it’s volunteering, helping us out, buying something small, we face a struggle in that.”
Jurkowski added another faced issue, that being “everybody [having] trouble fundraising the last couple of years - every group, every class, every organization within the school - so now everyone’s trying to make up for that too by fundraising at the same time. So, everyone, we’re trying to ask people for money, and everyone else is trying to get money too. So that’s been the most challenging part. It’s kind of, like, to come up with unique ideas that people want to spend money on. Because everyone’s trying to fundraise now, so that’s the most challenging part.”
That was not the only popular food fundraiser, though. On February 14th, - Valentine’s day - the CO’22 organized a bake sale, with goods produced and supplied by senior vendors. Snacks such as cookies, brownies and chocolates were sold, along with a multitude of other options, for a cheap price of $1-3, depending on the product. The food was sold after school ended, as opposed to outside the cafeteria during long block like most sales, and the table flooded with students as soon as the time hit 2:15.
For over 10 minutes, students were crowding the table, trying to purchase something before they sold out. The four seniors running the table - Editor-in-Chief Lauren Mallett, Jennifer Wong, Sammi Nie and aforementioned Julie Huynh - were rushing to keep up with the excited energy of students and increase efficiency, due to the line. The line eventually dwindled, allowing the cash to be totaled.
Unlike the Krispy Kreme sale, the bake sale ran smoothly. “Krispy Kreme, one of the biggest challenges was getting people to buy it… The bake sale, I want to say was not very difficult, we always get people to donate, there wasn’t too big of a problem. We thought COVID would be a problem, but since everything was prepackaged, it was super, super easy, there weren’t any obstacles,” Nie distinguished.
Due to the success of this sale, Nie explained how the class plans to replicate it: “We also want to do more bake sales, as a monthly thing if we can. It doesn’t have to be specifically like Valentine’s Day.”
There are other fundraisers coming up as well, according to Nie: “a volleyball tournament, a dodgeball tournament, a basketball tournament, maybe a car wash in the future, as they are super profitable. We did one in June or July, and we raised at least a couple hundred.” The class also has a public GoFundMe page to help them reach their goal by May.
Without tracking expenses, the Krispy Kreme fundraiser tallied $1,413.75 and the Valentine’s Day bake sale raised approximately $350. Over the course of four years, $22,000 has been raised, with $12,000 from this year alone. To reach their fundraising goal, the CO’22 needs around $5,000 more.
Correction: In first photo, Micaela Henry was mislabeled as Mayada Giha.
