On February 10, freshman class sponsor Katrina Alexander announced that a meeting would be held to discuss the East Chicago Central High School freshman class holding their first-ever fundraiser. The meeting was held via Zoom and took place on February 12 during the students’ Silent Reading Time.
The fundraiser was a four-day long popcorn selling contest partnered with virtual fundraising platform Double Good. While most online fundraisers send the product to the seller, and then the seller distributes the product, Double Good sends the popcorn directly to the buyer. In an announcement made to the freshman on their Google classroom, Alexander shared that the fundraiser would be 100% contactless.
Each student who participated was required to set up an account through the Double Good app and create their very own pop-up store. Once their stores were set up, they then could begin sharing their pop-up store links with family and on social media sites to acquire their sales.
During the meeting, Alexander stated that there would be a prize for whoever raised the most money. Once students joined the event using the code provided in the same Google Classroom announcement, they were able to see the leaderboard, which revealed who was leading in sales. The prices of the popcorn ranged from 16 to 99 dollars, and the students kept 50% of the overall sales.
Candice Warren was one of the highest students on the leadership board and ultimately raised the most money and took the number one spot on the leaderboard.
“I wanted to see what it felt like to participate in a popcorn fundraiser,” Warren said. “Because I have participated in fundraisers before but not one for popcorn”.
Warren discussed how happy she felt about coming out in the number one spot for sales.
“I felt excited,” she said. “I thought I wasn’t going to reach my goal of $400, but I actually surpassed that.”
Warren disclosed that her success in the popcorn fundraiser was attributed to her family.
“I won by reaching out to my family and friends and telling them to support me.”
Close to Warren on the leaderboard was another freshman participant, Ariel Martinez. Martinez placed fifth on the leaderboard with sales totaling to $165.
“We haven’t gotten to experience any real high school events due to COVID-19,” she said. “And when we go back, there will still be restrictions on what we can and can’t do. Since the amount of money would impact the rest of our three years, I wanted to do all I could to help make the rest of high school be the best.”
Martinez was also impressed with the success of the fundraising.
“I enjoyed the fundraiser, it was fun to see what I can accomplish in a couple of days, and I would definitely do it again.”
She would like to thank her mom, a family friend, two of her aunts, and her grandma.
Alongside Martinez and Warren on the leaderboard was a participant who chose to remain anonymous. The anonymous participant came in sixth place on the leaderboard and raised $70 over the four days.
“Fundraising is something I like doing in general,” the student said. “I am satisfied with the overall success of the fundraiser and I would do it again, even though there could have been more students.”
In the end, the freshman class raised $1,851. The participants had a fun experience and are excited to use the money during the remainder of their high school years at East Chicago.