Over $100 worth of jolly ranchers were rewarded to Don Lugo Math teacher, Robert Grebel. After achieving a certain goal set by Jolly Rancher themselves, Mr. Grebel received bags of jolly ranchers as a thank you for his services as a teacher and loyalty as a customer. Mr. Grebel has been purchasing jolly ranchers as a “prize snack” for approximately 15 years of his teaching career.

This all began when a student from his first-period calculus class was discussing the candies he often rewards his students with. Mr. Grebel expressed to them how he has been a reoccurring customer to Jolly Rancher for 15 years. This prompted his students to want to reach out to the Jolly Rancher company and see what they can do to give back to Mr. Grebel.

Brandie Altuna, a Don Lugo senior, posted a video of Mr. Grebel in class doing a calculus problem on the board. Within that video, Luis Lopez, another Don Lugo senior, can be seen correctly answering the question and receiving a jolly rancher as a prize. The tweet caption reads, “@Jolly_Rancher my math teacher has bought jolly ranchers for the past 15 years and always throws them out when we get the answers right in math! GIVE HIM A LIFETIME SUPPLY!!”

Jolly Rancher replied to this tweet with the following message, “Talk about motivation. 100 RTs by Friday & we’ll hook the class up.” Within 20 hours of the response, the initial tweet was able to surpass the 100 retweets goal, ultimately reaching 143 retweets and 180 favorites. Following that news, Jolly Rancher congratulated Brandie Altuna for achieving this goal by promising to hook the class up soon.

Mr. Grebel conveyed his thoughts on the whole situation within an interview. He discussed how they [jolly ranchers] are an easy candy to throw to the students so they have always been his “go-to” candy for rewarding his students. Mr. Grebel did not expect a response from Jolly Rancher but he certainly hoped for recognition to Altuna’s tweet. This entire experience has humbled Mr. Grebel because he felt as though it re-established his hope in America because of the fact that Jolly Rancher rewarded him as a teacher.

Mr. Grebel received 48 full bags of jolly ranchers, which comes out to over $100 worth of candies. He hopes to figure out a way he can thank Jolly Rancher for their generous contribution to him and his students.