Despite the fact that they are in all 50 states and 35 countries I have never had a Papa John’s pizza. The only reason I can cite is that they came late to our relatively small community where I have bought from our local New York pizzeria, Pizza Supremo, for 10+ years.

I will admit for kid’s birthday parties I have ordered from the national chains, but what do kids know about good pizza, and despite the fact Papa John’s opened a location that serves our area about a year ago, my curiosity had never peaked or inspired me to deviate from ordering from my local pizzeria.

I have marveled at their TV commercials, especially during Super Bowl when they give away 1,000,000 pizzas, which still boggles my mind. I love their tagline “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza, Papa John’s,” but I have never ordered one pizza.

Well anyway, my 11 year old came home with a fundraiser for the school, sponsored by Papa John’s. This was not the typical “order from us and we will donate xx% to your school.” What Papa John’s did was brilliant!

They delivered a whole lot of pizza boxes to the school, had the kids decorate them and if you order a pizza they will deliver it in the box your child decorated AND donate 20% of the sales to the school.

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!!!!  Kudos to Papa John’s! What father would not order a pizza in a box decorated by their 11 year old daughter?  Not this one.

Well we had pizza last night and I must admit it was pretty good. I had to call the local Papa John’s to order as opposed to ordering online but I understood immediately when I was asked my daughter’s name, grade and who her teacher was. (They had almost 800 boxes)

I elected to pick up my order and as soon as they placed the box in front of me I knew it was decorated by Caroline due to her signature giraffe drawing and I love dance notation.

The box itself was a standard Papa John’s box that was folded inside out, so the outside was now all white and a perfect canvas for kids.

While Papa John’s may not entirely replace my local pizzeria I certainly will order from them when I have the need for a “national chain” pizza at the next birthday party.

KUDOS again to Papa John’s!