With every fall comes “chocolate season” at Leesville, the time when students see their peers selling chocolate bars from blue-and-white cardboard boxes labelled “World’s Finest Chocolate.”
This year’s “chocolate season” will last from November 1 to November 17. However, the bars that students excitedly scramble to buy are more than just delicious treats; the money that students earn from selling them goes directly to one of Leesville’s many clubs.
Wake County School Board policy allows high school to conduct only one school-wide fundraiser per year, and for many years, Leesville Road High School has chosen to sell World’s Finest Chocolate for its fundraiser.
“[Fundraising with World’s Finest Chocolate] works well because every club can choose to be involved and can choose their level of involvement based on their financial needs/wants,” Kathryn Fehling, Leesville assistant principal and coordinator of the World’s Finest Chocolate fundraiser, said via email.
The World’s Finest Chocolate fundraiser is open to all of Leesville’s clubs, and this year, eight clubs have chosen to participate. They ordered a total of 155 boxes of chocolate for $30 each. Every box contains 60 $1 chocolate bars of varying flavors, so the clubs make $0.50 per bar and $30 per box.
The Leesville Executive Council is one of the groups participating in the fundraiser. It ordered 68 boxes and stands to make a profit of $2,040.
Dani Dalrymple, Leesville sophomore and Executive Council sergeant-at-arms, will be selling chocolate to benefit the Executive Council. Students in the Executive Council must either sell all the chocolate bars in their box or make up the difference themselves, and Dalrymple admits that sometimes, it can be a challenge to sell all 60 chocolate bars in a box.
“[My level of success when selling chocolate] depends if people bring money or not, especially since a lot of other people are also selling [chocolate],” said Dalrymple.
Jessica Lee, Leesville freshman and Executive Council member, has found a new method to ensure she sells all her chocolate. As a result, she is ahead of the chocolate-selling game; Lee has sold 116 bars, and she is almost on her third box of chocolate.
“I [go] to the middle school because I go there every day to pick up my brother,” said Lee. “I have a lot of friends in eighth grade,…so then a lot of them want to buy chocolate.”
Overall, both Lee and Dalrymple enjoy selling chocolate to benefit the Executive Council.
“[Selling chocolate is] actually pretty fun.…I get to…meet new people,” Lee said.
Leesville students love buying chocolate as much as their peers love selling it, for, according to students, the name “World’s Finest Chocolate” is no overstatement. As the World’s Finest Chocolate website states, the company prides itself on “[crafting] premium chocolate directly from the cocoa bean.”
“I think [World’s Finest Chocolate is] a lot better, honestly, than…other chocolate brands, and it’s cheaper,” said Molly Butler, Leesville junior.
The World’s Finest Chocolate fundraiser at Leesville will run until November 17, so be sure to buy a bar or two and support one of Leesville’s clubs.
