Candy gram fundraiser poster. Photo from Class of 2023 Instagram account.
This year, Malden High’s juniors brought back the old tradition of candy grams, a fundraiser with all treats and hardly any tricks. For only one dollar, students could send each other a message along with some candy.
Michael Lightbody, U.S. History teacher and Class of 2023 advisor, wanted to ensure that every cent spent on candy grams would go towards class expenses such as prom and miscellaneous supplies. James Valente, English teacher and Maldonian adviser, mentioned that they thought “it was a great way” to “bring some fun back.”
Even though the Class of ‘23 raised more money than they were expecting, Lightbody expressed that this fundraiser “[wasn’t] necessarily about raising a whole bunch of cash; this [was] more about getting the kids to be involved.”
The real challenge was distributing the candy grams to each person. Normally the fundraising team would hand them out during homeroom. However, because homeroom was removed from the schedule this year, the Class of ‘23 distributed them in English classes. In order to avoid the dangers of nut and dairy allergies, Lightbody and Valente made sure that there were Skittles in addition to chocolate with every order.
Lightbody has been encouraging the Class of ‘23 to keep getting together with fundraisers. In fact, during the junior car wash “they had a great turnout, which was great.” He added that he was “worried that this class hasn’t done a lot together” because they have not had the chance to be together with the pandemic and restrictions.
“If we get kids involved now and they have some fun with it, then down the road when we do bigger things, and more important things like prom, we are going to want kids to get involved” states Lightbody. “If they see how much fun things can be if we can make a molehill now, what happens when it is a mountain? So if we get 300 kids involved in giving out candy grams, and they’re mostly juniors, then can we possibly make 300 kids want to go to the prom?”
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