For the 2010 graduating class we had 76 graduates. I believe this was the largest class yet. We had a total of five family volunteers to help our team. We could easily have gotten along with only three. The majority of the work is done the day before and the day of graduation. We did have to pre-order the cookies and the ginger ale for the punch. We then delivered the punch, ginger ale, paper goods and ice rings the evening of the rehearsal. The cookies we picked up the day of graduation. This seemed to work out really well. The only real problem we had with pick up and delivery was people actually showing up to help. It would be very helpful if when they were asking for volunteers for this team they would ask for people with vans or trucks.
We ordered the cookies from the Price Chopper at the corner of Sante Fe and Mur-len. This worked out really well as it is very close to the College Church. When people didn’t show up to help deliver, Chris and I were able to load her van, deliver the cookies quickly and come back for a second load. We did over order though. Our reception was fairly short and I would suggest you find out how long the reception will be before you order. We ordered 270 dz. cookies and had approximately 63 dz. left over. We ordered the large round trays that came w/9 dz. cookies per tray. We also ordered the peanut butter cookies on separate trays (2 total). I think the separate trays of peanut butter cookies worked out well. We also ordered more chocolate chip and chocolate, chocolate chip than the other varieties. This also seemed to go over well. The bakery and store managers were very helpful and gave us a 10% discount on our order. You need to ask for the discount.
We made a simple punch of 1 gal. punch to 2 lt. ginger ale. We had too much punch as well. We started with 72 gal. punch and 77 2 lt. bottles of ginger ale. (5 of the ginger ale were used to make ice rings.) We had 33 gal. punch and 32 2 lt. ginger ale left over. The punch we purchased at Sam’s Club along with the paper goods. MPE does NOT have a membership so unless someone in your group has a membership this option will not be open to you. We ordered the ginger ale at Walmart, and we did have to pre-order it. However, it only took a couple of days to come in and then they want you to come and get it. (I mean, they really want you to come and get it!!) We received the best price for the ginger ale at Walmart so it was worth the hassle.
Finally, we picked up white napkins and clear 9 oz cups at Sam’s Club. We purchased 1800 Vanity Fair napkins and 1800 cups. We had 900 napkins left and 300 cups.
It helps if you know ahead of time where you are going to store everything but the cookies as you won’t want to leave it till the last minute to pick these things up. Also, try to have assistance from people who have vans, trucks or at least SUVs. As I stated before, the bulk of the work is done the day before and the day of graduation. Our leftovers were donated to Freedom Fire Urban Ministry, though you may decide to simply return the unopened items, except for the cookies. We didn’t have any nuts or candy as we were told they make a mess. Good luck with your graduation adventure!