Candy-Grams and Carnation Sales
The 9th grade student council has been hard at work. Throughout the first two weeks of February, members Hector Vega, Yanin Figueroa, Terra Mckethan, Danny MacDonald, Yamir Rivera, and Jezica Quinones conducted a “candy-gram” sale for Valentine’s Day in order to raise money for the freshman class at Clemente. The students planned the sale during the month of January and then began selling candy-grams two weeks before Valentine’s Day.
One candy-gram consisted of a lolly-pop with a note written from the sender to the recipient, and cost one dollar. The student council wanted to make the candy-grams inexpensive in order to have a greater appeal among the freshman customers. Students put up posters around the school to advertise the candy-grams. Candy-grams were sold during lunch period. First, student council members sat at a table in the cafeteria waiting for customers to come to them, but they quickly discovered that they could sell much more candy if they walked table-to-table advertising their treats. Eventually, they expanded their sale to sophomore, junior, and senior lunchrooms, which helped to increase profits.
On Friday, February 13, the day before Valentine’s Day, freshman council members delivered the candy-grams to recipients during their 8th period classes. Students were excited to receive their gifts. Some candy-grams were friendly letters from friends, others were notes from crushes, and few were sent to teachers and staff!
The freshman council learned a lot from this experience about how to best advertise and sell an item, as well as how pricing and quality can affect the appeal of a product. They faced some competition from the JROTC cadets, who were selling carnations, which encouraged them to be on their game.