Candy Grams: BHS' February Fundraiser!
- McKinley Owczarski
- Mar 7
- 3 min read
Who wouldn’t want a piece of candy anonymously sent on Valentine's Day? For many students at Blacksburg High School, candy grams are going to become a highly anticipated tradition. Set up in the cafeteria a week before Valentine's Day, our Student Council works to advertise and sell the candy grams during all three lunches. Then, on Valentine's Day, SCA officers distribute the candy grams to students during Bruin. This is a brand new SCA fundraiser that they are hoping to expand in the years to come. The money raised by the candy grams this year is going towards the California Community Fund and Wildfire Relief.
One member of the student council, Amina Hardee (9), noted that on the Friday one week before Valentine's Day, four people bought a candy gram during second lunch. She believed that there would be many more students buying them the closer it got to Valentine's Day. Due to the four unexpected snow days, though, the Student Council has lost precious selling time: there was less than a week to sell this year. Amina mentioned her favorite part of selling candy grams is watching people buy them while wondering who they might be sending them to.
While interviewing someone I saw buying a candy gram, I encountered an amusing situation. The student I interviewed wishes to remain anonymous but was happy to share her story. Her best friend used to like her older brother but has been dating a guy for over a year now. She thought it would be funny to send her best friend a candy gram from her older brother. She laughed and told me she was very eager to see her best friend’s reaction.
After that interview, my curiosity has grown as to the different intentions the candy grams are bought with. Are they mostly pranks? Are friends sending them to one another? Or are the majority of the candy grams confessions of crushes?
So many snow days! Mrs. Mayer, an SCA sponsor, believes that the candy grams will now have to be delivered a week after Valentine's Day. The SCA officers will go around to different Bruins to hand deliver the candy grams that they worked hard to make on Friday, February 21st. Radia Lu (12) said that it took about two hours to make all of the candy grams, including the poems that the officers cut out and included in the bags.
Radia believes that this won’t affect other SCA fundraisers this year, but she was very sorry that the snow days drastically reduced the days available to sell. When commenting on fundraising effects, Radia said, “Trust me, there will be tons of fun events for Awareness Week, including our Awareness Week Dodgeball tournament on March 17- 21st. Registration will be out soon!”
Naveed Jantzen (11), the Student Council Treasurer, answers on behalf of all SCA officers when asked what they enjoy most about being involved with the candy grams. He remarked, “It's rewarding to coordinate with fellow officers and representatives to get something material and objective done for good, in this case helping out a devastated California.” Naveed said it made him happy as an officer to know he is helping many people in different places through the SCA.
Although the new fundraiser got off to a slow start this year due to the continuous snow and ice, I am confident that it will become a huge success. After all, who wouldn’t want to spend $2 to send an anonymous piece of candy to their high school sweetheart… or to prank their best friend?
Written by Ada Gaines
Photography by Mac Owczarski
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