Popcorn in one thousand words (not really)

We occasionally post testimonial stories on our blog, but this time we thought we'd let the pictures do the talking - as they say, a picture is worth one thousand words! Check out some of our best fan-submitted popcorn appreciation pics below.  

Share your own pop picks on our Facebook page!

Halloween contest winner: Debbie is well "Liked"

Congratulations to our Halloween costume contest winner Debbie. Dressed as a spooky fortune teller, Debbie was our first entrant and was able to rally her friends and family to vote (Like) her photo on our Facebook page 32 times!

For her winning entry, Debbie has won an exclusive Popcorn Palace commemorative Halloween tin filled with delicious gourmet popcorn.


Thank you for everyone who entered, it was a great contest with some really creepy and cute photos. Below are two other fan favorites.

Check out Popcorn Palace on Facebook here.

If you have a cause that you need to raise funds for (or you just love the taste of gourmet popcorn) visit Popcorn Palace today!

Win Halloween Treats!

Halloween is all about treats (and tricks) and we at Popcorn Palace want to share some of our treats with you. You have just one week to enter to win an exclusive Popcorn Palace commemorative Halloween tin filled with delicious gourmet popcorn.

All you need to do to win is upload your best halloween costume photos (of you or your kid/s) onto our Facebook page. 

The winner will be the photo with the most Facebook "Likes." So, post your photo and get your friends and family, ghosts and ghouls to visit our Facebook page and click on the "Like" associated with your photo.

Good luck!

................................................................

RULES:

• The winners will be the user who submits the photo that receives the most "Likes" on Facebook as of midnight (CST) on Oct. 26, 2010.
• We will contact winners through a Facebook message.
• Winners must reply with mailing addresses within 2 days (48 hours) of message being sent.
• This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to Popcorn Palace and not to Facebook. The photos you provide will only be used in a Facebook photo album and possibly on a future Popcorn Palace blog post.
• Judges decision is final.

Popcorn Palace + Aberdeen YMCA Childcare Center = $uce$$!

"We love fundraisers l like [Popcorn Palace]. Everyone loves popcorn!” 

Amy Severson, the preschool teacher for the YMCA Childcare Center in Aberdeen, SD, for the past 19 years, doesn’t quite remember how she became in charge of the fundraising program, but has been doing it for the many years.

The center takes care of infants from six weeks up to six-year-old children, and another building houses a program for school-aged children. In the past, they hadn’t had very many parents participate in their fundraisers and so, Severson was looking for a change. 

“My children went to stay with their aunt and came home and told me about some chocolate-drizzled popcorn they had and loved,” she says. “I Googled “popcorn fundraising” and that’s how I found Popcorn Palace.”  

Severson says that the product sells itself: “With this past popcorn fundraiser, we heard a story about someone’s grandparents grumbling about the price of the popcorn, but after they received it they were begging us to tell them how they could get some more! We love fundraisers l like that. Everyone loves popcorn!” They do, indeed! 

Check out the Aberdeen YMCA on Facebook here and Popcorn Palace here.

If you have a cause that you need to raise funds for (or you just love the taste of gourmet popcorn) visit Popcorn Palace today!

The Mighty Tiger Band Booster Association

“We are proud, hardworking, and a close knit family of believers in music and how it helps us improve our lives and the lives of others in our community.”

This inspirational story was brought to you in part by Ethel Burns, a loving grandmother.

Mrs. Burns agreed to become a member of her grandson’s band parent organization and within a year became, and still is the financial secretary. “I am not the fundraiser coordinator, nor have I ever been,” she explains. “However, I fill in whenever and wherever I'm needed. I love the students and I love it when I see them grow and blossom into beautiful members of society.”

She continues, “The band director, Richard Beckford, is awesome. He takes kids that are literally about to be kicked out of school and society and turns them around. He takes kids who do not fit into the ‘norm’ because of some physical handicap or some label that the medical world has placed on them and within one school term they are playing music and marching with other kids in the band.”




“It would take hours for me to tell you how great our high school band is. Our kids are graduating with 4.0 and 3.0s and these are students that others said ‘would not make it.’ We are an inner-city school with no funds and limited instruments,” Mrs. Burns explains. “However, we are proud, hardworking, and a close knit family of believers in music and how it helps us improve our lives and the lives of others in our community.”

In order to raise the needed funds for these students, the booster association has turned to Popcorn Palace. Mrs. Burns says, “God has blessed us tremendously through fundraisers and contributions! Popcorn Palace is the greatest. The product is so good that people say it is 'addictive.' We have so many repeat customers. Whenever I call in to place an order or to ask a question, whoever answers the telephone is so polite and courteous.” 

When school opened for the 2010-2011 year, Popcorn Palace was their first major fundraiser. The booster association offered incentives with the goal of each of their more than 200 students getting $200 or more worth of orders.  

Where does the money go? Mrs. Burns proudly reports, “This year we won Superior in every area of our state competitions. We have been invited to represent the State of Florida in a band competition to be held in Washington, DC in October at the White House Ellipse." 



“Thank you for giving us the opportunity to have this open fundraising activity,” she states. “We love you and we appreciate you, POPCORN PALACE, the greatest!”

Check out the Mighty Tigers on Facebook here and Popcorn Palace here.

If you have a cause that you need to raise funds for (or you just love the taste of gourmet popcorn) visit Popcorn Palace today!

Fundraising for Futbol!

“Popcorn Palace" has done a great job in providing quality product that meets satisfaction.”

For close to two years, Fabi Rodriguez has worked hard as the fundraising coordinator for the North San Diego Futbol Club (NSDFC) Stallions, a soccer club in Vista, CA. The players, aged between 11 and 19, sell Popcorn Palace gourmet popcorn to raise funds for their registration fees, tournament fees, uniform and more.

The team has had great success with both under-11 and under-15 the boys teams winning berths in the finals of the Hotspurs Labor Day Soccer Tournament, one of the largest labor day soccer tournaments in the country.


Hotspurs Labor Day 2009 from Ted Bendrick - TVX Video.com on Vimeo.

According to Rodriguez, “Popcorn Palace" has done a great job in providing quality product that meets satisfaction.”

The fundraiser has proven very popular in the past and the Stallions plan to keep selling it to raise funds for their soccer stars, “Popcorn Palace offers a great profit percentage for our players at NSDFC and we all love popcorn, which makes it easy to sell.” says Rodriguez.

Check out the Stallions on Facebook here and Popcorn Palace here.

If you have a cause that you need to raise funds for (or you just love the taste of gourmet popcorn) visit Popcorn Palace today!

Elmwood Park DECA Chapter: Popcorn-fueled competitors!

"Because of his success selling popcorn in the spring, the track coach at our school suggested that my National Honor Society sell it in the fall.” 

Karen Bear, a vocational education teacher at Elmwood Park High School in Elmwood Park, IL, has served for more than five years as the fundraising coordinator for her school’s National Honor Society. She uses Popcorn Palace for the NHS fall fundraiser, which is the only fundraiser they hold all year, and it typically lasts 3-4 weeks.

“Because of his success selling popcorn in the spring, the track coach at our school suggested that my National Honor Society sell it in the fall,” Bear explains. “We raise enough money to pay for our banquet and our teacher appreciation activities.”

Bear said that she also added her DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) chapter to the fundraiser as we need a large sum of money each year for competitions. "We have State Competition every year and for the last 6 years, we have earned the right to go to International Competition.” 

“The popcorn fundraiser is one of our best options,” she continues. “The best incentive is that I put the profits directly into student accounts for them to use to offset their own competition costs. We have spread the word about Popcorn 

Palace to other chapters in the Chicago area.”

For more info about Elmwood Park High School and its organizations, visit www.epcusd401.org/ephs.

Popcorn: A love story

 "Popcorn Palace popcorn has been there during two HUGE events in our life."

The happy couple

"On a weekend back in October of 2006, I planned to meet my girlfriend, Carrie, at the Columbus Airport for what was going to be a pretty routine weekend (or so she thought). We spent most of 2006 and 2007 living apart (me in NY and her in Ohio) as she pursued her Grad degree and I continued my career in New York City. She greeted me just outside of the security checkpoint, which is where I told her that we had to get to baggage claim soon or else we were going to miss our flight. I still remember her looking at me as if I was crazy. It was then I told her that we needed to get my checked bag as soon as possible because we were headed to Chicago for the weekend.  

Love at first site!

It was in Chicago that very weekend where I asked her to spend the rest of her life with me. Needless to say, she said yes. We spent Saturday night at Navy Pier, which is where Popcorn Palace came into the picture. We stumbled upon the store in the shoppes at Navy Pier and immediately knew we found something special. We must have tired five or six different flavors before settling on "Cookies and Cream" and "Chocolate Drizzle Carmel Corn." Both flavors were amazing and we ate so much that neither of us was hungry for dinner or even breakfast the following day.

Romantic snacking

Fast forward a year and a half and we were in the thick of planning our wedding. One of our ideas was to create a Candy Buffet for our guests. We handpicked each of the items to represented something in our relationship. It was a no brainer that the star of the Candy Buffet table was the same flavors of Popcorn Palace popcorn that we had in Chicago during the weekend of our engagement! 

The expectant couple

Popcorn Palace popcorn has been there during two HUGE events in our life, so its only fitting that we will have some on hand for another special event - the birth of our first child. Our baby girl is due in November - just around Thanksgiving and we have no doubt that there will be some Popcorn Palace popcorn on hand once again!

Thank you for some amazing popcorn and even better memories!"

- Rob and Carrie Moran

A Dancer's World: Fundraising that sparkles!

“A Dancer's World has been in business for 17 years and the popcorn fundraiser is by far the best fundraiser we have ever had!”

Tessa, who has been the fundraiser coordinator for Dancer’s World for more than five years, said that their Popcorn Palace fundraiser was their most successful one ever. The fundraiser, which ran for 2-3 weeks, helps parents pay for their children ‘s dance classes.

Said Tessa, “A Dancer's World has been in business for 17 years and the popcorn fundraiser is by far the best fundraiser we have ever had!”

If you have a cause that you need to raise funds for (or you just love the taste of gourmet popcorn) visit Popcorn Palace today!

Take me out to the ball game!

On July 18, Miyuki Kamiya, Fran Cockrell, Patty Stange from Popcorn Palace headed out to Alexian Field in Schaumburg, Illinois for a Family Day baseball game with the Schaumburg Fliers.

During the team's Family Day games, Kids are able to run the bases after the game and the meet their favorite Flyers players for autographs. Popcorn Palace set up a table in the concourse to promote fundraising and share our delicious popcorn with the fans. 

If you weren't able to make it out last month, we will be there again on August 27 for fireworks night!

 

Join the Flyers on Facebook here and Popcorn Palace here.

ING Hoops: Making a Difference in Inglewood

"Out of all the fundraisers we have tried throughout the years, Popcorn Palace has been our number one fundraiser of them all!"

Founded in Inglewood, California in 2003, The ING Hoops Youth Organization became a nonprofit organization and joined the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) in 2005. They now proudly boast of one of the best AAU traveling teams in the state. This group of young men are some of the most talented and dedicated around, with a coaching staff personally committed to teaching the game to the best of their ability. The team motto? One Vision, One Goal, One Team.

ING Hoops believes that positive character development can be accomplished by focusing on core values such as compassion, commitment, integrity, respect, health and responsibility. They strive to develop these values in these young men through mentoring, academics and exemplary sports. The main goal is to prepare these athletes to compete on a national level while installing Godly principles that will ultimately allow them to rise above any negative influences and activities they may encounter. By seeking the highest level of competition, it is the coaches' goal to develop their basketball players into a position of being awarded college scholarships based on their talent and academics.

Felicia Dean, vice president of the ING Hoops Youth Travel Basketball Organization, has been the fundraising coordinator for the organization for more than five years. Dean wanted to find new and exciting ways of raising funds for the team's equipment, tournament fees, travel expenses, etc. While searching for a fundraiser other than cookie dough or candy, a close friend told her about Popcorn Palace.

However, Dean wasn't expecting the kind of response she got by fundraising with Popcorn Palace. "Participants were eager to buy the popcorn because it looked really good and they wanted something they could eat right away!" And since they got to keep 50 percent of the profits, it was also their most profitable one. "Out of all the fundraisers we have tried throughout the years, Popcorn Palace has been our number one fundraiser of them all!" she exclaims.

Popcorn Palace has proven so popular for the team's fundraising, in fact, that she has people asking for it year round. "People are always asking 'When will you be selling that good ol' popcorn again?' They absolutely love it!" Dean said. "It is the best fundraiser for any age group event. You are guaranteed a profit!"

To learn more or to support ING Hoops Youth Organization, email them at inghoops@sbcglobal.net.

If you have a cause that you need to raise funds for (or you just love the taste of gourmet popcorn) visit Popcorn Palace today!