PCM High School opened up a new, student-run coffee shop called The Crimson Cup at the start of second semester. The shop is run out of the concessions area in the commons. Business teacher Kristen Burghorn got the idea for the coffee shop and helped turn the idea into a reality for the high school and its students. 

“It all started with an idea. A distributor had approached Mrs. Souza actually, and he had kind of reached out,” began Burghorn. “He had worked with other schools that have coffee shops, so he brought the idea to her. She said, ‘I think we should look into this.’ So we met with the distributor and visited some schools, had a lot of meetings, a lot of planning, and it just went from there.”

The distributor originally approached Souza and Burghorn in September, with them looking at other schools’ coffee shops in October before finally opening The Crimson Cup in January. A big question that many community members had was where exactly the shop’s profits would end up.

Burghorn explained that, “All of the profit, for now, has to go to pay off any of the debts. So we had to buy the equipment, we had to buy all of the inventory, so right now it’s going to that. Eventually it will go back into the business program. When the school starts a DECA or FELA program it will go into that. Long-term, one of the goals is that, when it’s actually making money and things can be purchased, that other clubs can go like NHS or Robotics and they could work and earn part of the profits for their clubs as well.”

The shop generated $1200 in revenue during its inaugural month; it has also made over $100 each day in February so far. 

Alongside Burghorn is PCM alum Colton Warrick, who joined the high school staff as an Agriculture teacher second semester. Burghorn explained how the two “tag team” the running coffee shop. 

“Mr. Warrick does School to Career, so he oversees each of the students because they are in School to Career,” said Burghorn. “He is responsible for figuring out their assignments, their grades, all of that. We kind of tag team making the coffee and the lemonade. Mrs. Stone also comes in most mornings and makes the hot coffee. Mr. Warrick runs all of the errands and gets all of the supplies.”

Burghorn announced earlier this school year that she is leaving the district and moving to the east coast. With that in mind, she already has plans for how the Crimson Cup will continue to operate in her absence. 

“The new business teacher will probably take over The Crimson Cup, probably in conjunction with Mr. Warrick, since he’ll have been around. I am assuming that they will find some sort of ‘tag team’ method as well. Since there are underclassmen working in The Crimson Cup, we are hoping that they keep going and now we have a new set of leadership in the coffee shop,” stated Burghorn. 

Due to the Crimson Cup’s success, it is unlikely that it will be going anywhere, anytime soon. The shop has opened up a form for community orders as well, so make sure to show up and support the high school’s new business endeavor.