To kick off the spring semester and say goodbye to the winter season, Clark Magnet High School held its annual Winterfest. Similar to Clarktoberfest, Winterfest features both the ASB class and different clubs selling food and drinks to raise money for their respective groups while simultaneously creating a 30-40 minute period of time where students get to just hang out and enjoy student life on campus.
ASB sold about the same snacks and drinks as they did Clarktoberfest, just in larger quantities to increase availability to all students and meet demand. The freshmen sold pizza, sophomores sold donuts, juniors sold ponchiks, and seniors sold boba.
A new item added into the mix was nachos. “We were trying to give a little bit more savory or salty options since a lot of it was sweet and we wanted to balance that,” ASB Class Advisor Mrs.Tatevosian said. ASB found an old nacho machine as they cleaned out old ASB storage rooms. It was a big hit as one of the savory options during the sales. ASB also purchased brand new ice carts, to have a nicer presentations of refreshing drinks.
Clarktoberfest, a very similar event that took place in October, led the ASB students to a discussion about supply and demand. There was a higher demand than supply for their event in October. Most items sold out within the first 15 minutes of the event. ASB took this into account for Winterfest and increased the products to match the supply. Unfortunately, not all classes sold out of their food items at this event.
Boba is usually a high-demand item and sells out in minutes. During Clarktoberfest, the seniors bought about 150 bobas, and sold out while there was still a long line. But this semester, it barely made the cut. “We had trouble selling the last 10 Thai teas, which was confusing since it is usually our best seller. We definitely sold out faster during Clarktoberfest,” ASB Senior Class Treasurer, Mane Ghazaryan said.
Similarly, the freshmen who were selling pizzas, were struggling to finish their sales. During Clarktoberfest, they sold out in minutes, with students even buying the entire box for the sweet sweet price of 20 tickets, which converts to $20. During this Winterfest, however, the freshmen had about 6 boxes left over towards the end. Teachers definitely helped out as well, buying 3 boxes to support the freshmen, but in the end, they still did not sell out.
One item that students didn’t see, despite it being advertised beforehand, were the cupcakes. Video Game Club was set to sell this item during the event, yet they were nowhere to be seen. There was a mistake in the approval phase of the items as cupcakes are one of the items that most GUSD schools do not allow. At a glance, it seems kind of silly, but in a conversation with admin, it was made evident that this is unfortunately a legitimate problem with high school students that has in the past led to food fights, big messes, and even physical altercations among students. What starts off as a joke often leads to more serious results.
On the bright side, there was a lot of success with many clubs and a few classes sold out completely. Juniors sold all 250 ponchiks just a few minutes into the event. “The entire selling and purchasing process was definitely faster this semester, and we sold out much quicker than we did at Clarktoberfest,” junior class advisor Ms. Ohanian said.
Despite all this, Winterfest was still a fun time where students could get a break from school and studies to hang out with their friends during enrichment while eating their favorite foods and enjoying the beginning of the Spring semester.
