My kids love getting dressed up in costume, roaming the neighborhood with friends to trick-or-treat, sampling candy along the way then home to watch The Great Pumpkin and count/categorize/trade their candy loot. Then it’s only a matter of days after Halloween that my children start to forget about their candy choosing ice cream or cookies for their desert choice.
So what do we do will all the candy collected? Over the year’s we have gathered numerous ideas from other parent’s on how they handle the candy overload. I want to remind you of all their great ideas here and suggest another option this year: Operation Gratitude. Donate unwanted candy to the military troops.
The Children’s Workshop, a local child care and early education provider, is encouraging children from it’s sixteen Massachusetts and Rhode Island schools, and the community, to donate a portion of their Halloween candy to send to the troops. All 16 centers will be collecting any candy donated by the public from November 1-November 4, 2011.
This is the second year for the program. Last year more than 105 lbs. of candy was sent to Camp Phoenix in Afghanistan and Operation Gratitude, a non-profit that sends care packages to United States service members deployed overseas.
Westerly Director, Christina Stanlewicz, immediately emailed the entire company when she learned of the program’s return this year, “Can I tell you just how much I love this program? Kids are ecstatic to bring all their candy in next week!” The enthusiasm is companywide, as TCW is hoping to surpass the five large boxes of candy were shipped in 2010.
The company will encourage participants to swap Halloween candy for a children’s book in the hopes of exchanging cavities and sugar induced hyperactivity for learning, literacy, and stress the importance of charitable giving.
Candy donations are open to the public at all 16 locations Tuesday-Friday (11/1-11/4), from 8 a.m. — 6 p.m.
For more information about Operation Gratitude, please visit www.opgratitude.com and for more information about The Children’s Workshop please visit www.childrensworkshop.com.
