MERIDIAN, IDAHO — Grant Dental collected over 1,000 lbs of candy to send to troops at their 18th Candy Buy Back event.
- This is the 18th Candy Buy Back.
- The office collected over 1,000 lbs of candy.
- The candy will be distributed over many different non-profits, but will mainly be sent overseas to US troops.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Halloween may be over for folks in the Treasure Valley but not for our troops overseas. I'm your neighborhood reporter Alexander Huddleston at Grant Dental for their 18th annual candy buyback event.
"We recognize kids get way too much candy. So we will tell the kids, you probably got ten pounds last night. Find one or two pounds of the stuff you don't like, because somebody probably likes it even though you don't," said Grant Dental owner Scott Grant.
About 18 years ago Grant began working with local businesses to put on the Candy Buy Back event.
Grant continued, "We change out a dollar a pound. They come in bring it and we'll exchange it out. When they leave, they will have a bag of goodies with healthy alternatives from local restaurants and other vendors."
There were all sorts of fun stations throughout the office and as you walked through you saw a few fun and familiar faces.
But after Halloween why would you want to give up your candy?
"It's because I want to be nice to other kids," said one young girl.
Her mother Kayla Depriest added, "She doesn't need a lot of candy so it's an easy way to incentivize it."
"We had a lot of extra candy and I asked my daughter if she would trade in some of her candy for a toy because money does not mean anything to her. She wants a toy so thats why we are here," laughed Karen Barbee.
Grant tells me that the kid collected can be dispersed by many local nonprofits but one of the main groups that benefits from these treats are soldiers.
Grant finished by explaining, "We usually send everything we get. Sometimes around 1,500-2,000 sometimes 2,500 pounds of candy. We send all that overseas and we have kids write little letters saying that we are thinking about you and thank you for everything you do.
Grant says if you couldn't make it today they will still be accepting drop-offs throughout next week.
