Students from three area high schools will decorate cakes on Saturday for prom fundraisers at Price Chopper and the north and south Country Mart grocery stores.
The stores will donate 8-inch cakes — both chocolate and white — to the students for the first “High School Project Prom.”
Students from Emporia High School’s Project Prom will be at the north store, Olpe High School Junior Class Project Prom will be at the south store and Northern Heights Sophomore Class Project Prom will be at Price Chopper.
Each school will receive 100 percent of the proceeds from cake sales. The cakes will be priced at $4.99 each.
The fundraisers are the first done here by Bob’s Super Savers, the Gardner-based company that recently purchased the three grocery stores from the Reeble family.
“There’s more to be coming ... and other schools will have the opportunity throughout the year to do similar events, just not this one,” said Gary Andrews, manager of the north Country Mart. “There’s going to be different fundraisers for all local high schools or regional high schools.”
Bob’s president, Larry Good, said that the project reflects the company’s policy of commitment to the communities in which it operates.
“We’re people that are involved in our communities, and we believe now more than ever that Emporia needs somebody looking out for Emporia,” Good said. “We’re there. We plan to be there. And I think over time they’ll find that we’re pretty active in the community.”
Good said that support will not always be financial.
“Sometimes it’s just being there and being the person who leads the charge,” Good said.
In this instance, the prom projects are a combination of both roles. Store personnel contacted the high schools to give them an opportunity to raise money to finance their proms.
The stores will donate the cakes, which will be base-iced white, Andrews said, and the decorating will be done on-site at each store.
“Then the kids or the prom participants will decorate them as they wish, or how whoever orders one will want one,” he said.
The stores ask only that at least four class representatives be present at the store during the sales, which will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.