In light of Valentine’s spirit week, the NAI student council began selling Candy Grams during lunch periods. However, despite their simplicity, the student council revealed a surprising amount of depth and intricacy behind the seemingly humble product.

The premise of the product is simple, and easy to understand. 

Student council member, sophomore Madison Martin, explained it well herself. Essentially, the Candy Gram is a box of candy hearts with a message written on it. Said student can then have it be sent “anonymously or they could put their actual name, and they can [choose to] send it to whoever they want in the building as long as they know the kid’s homeroom number.” When the student decides who the Candy Gram will go to, the student council will then send it to the receiver’s homeroom.

The selling of Candy Grams has been an annual tradition for the student council for many years now.

Martin confirmed this, but stated that the tradition was canceled the previous year because of “COVID and the hybrid situation.”

The decision to continue the tradition seemed to have paid off, as the product has succeeded in gaining popularity.

Martin reported that the sales of the Candy Grams have been “really good,” with one student even buying forty-five Candy Grams in one purchase. She believes that the success of the product is rooted largely from the fact that many students simply “like the idea, and the thought behind it.” In total, the student council “made over $600 and profited almost $300.”

However, with an influx of purchases always comes the potential stress put on the sellers of a product. Luckily, the process of creation, as confirmed by Martin, has remained simple and efficient.

“The kids fill out all the information they need, they decorate it however they want, and then we tape it onto a box of candy hearts, so all it took was just some decorations and ordering the supplies and putting it all together.”

While the Candy Grams have been largely successful, the price of $2.00 may leave some students skeptical. However, there is a reasoning behind the rather high price.

Martin explained, “each one of [the] individual candy heart boxes are 88 cents, so in order to make a profit, we had to do two dollars. The money we make from this goes to provide a budget for later student council events, [and] in order to do those events, we need to get enough money to have that budget. That’s why the price is two dollars.”

The student council’s decision on continuing the annual tradition of selling Candy Grams has been a major success, being popular among students, bringing in great profits, and a provider of additional money for funding future student council events, including “service projects and student and teacher appreciation events.”