Halloween’s over. The jack-o-lanterns are beginning to show decay in their toothy smiles, and if our children have their way with their candy haul, they may have the same problem. Whether you just want to ensure that your kids doesn’t get a bellyache from too many sweets, or your looking for something to do with all your leftover candy (maybe you didn’t get as many trick-or-treaters as you expected), there are a couple of great ways you can help others with your candy and old costumes.
What to do with your leftover candy
Option 1: Keep it local and donate it to the Cub Scouts at Pack 504 for their Christmas Parade! These boys always brave the weather to put on a float and hand out candy for your enjoyment in the annual Christmas Parade. Problem is, they always run out. Every year. The parade route is 3 miles long and that candy typically disappears long before then. If you’d like to help out, please drop your candy off at First Presbyterian Sapulpa, located at 111 S Oak St, Sapulpa, Oklahoma 74066
Option 2: donate your candy to a good cause and make a little moolah with it!
While the candy craze of Halloween is a fun part of Americana, the reality is a lot of it gets left out and sitting around after the first few days. This candy is typically the candy that kids don’t really want, but will eat, because it’s there. In 2005, Dr. Chris Kammer—specialist in esthetic dentistry—started an effort to get “some of the candy off the streets.” For every pound of candy kids brought in, they’d get $1.00—the result was better than expected; kids from all over town brought in their candy to be “bought back” for a buck.
The next year, Dr. Chris Kammer enlisted the help of other dentists across America to help take the candy buy-back program national. At the time it made the ABC News—shown in the video below—there were over 3,000 dentist offices in the country participating.
Giving kids a chance to earn a few bucks for their candy is cool enough, but what’s even better is where the candy goes: to our soldiers overseas, who use the candy to build relationships with children in the countries and villages where they’re stationed. Everyone agrees that it’s probably the best use of the candy outside of consuming it yourself.
Unfortunately, there’s only one dentist office participating in the candy buy-back program within 20 miles of Sapulpa:
Super Smiles
300 N. Aspen Ave.
Broken Arrow, OK, 74012
Phone: 918-251-3333
Email: drevan@supersmiles.com
www.supersmiles.com
What to do with your old Halloween costumes
We get it, your kids love their halloween costumes, and wear them for days on end, until the funk forces you to pry them out of their closets at bath time for a quick spin in the washer.
But the truth is, your kids are not going to wear those costumes forever, and almost certainly not the following year. So how about sending your costume to a kid who needs one?
‘WEEN DREAM is a volunteer organization that gives costumes to kids around the nation who wouldn’t be able to afford them, otherwise. They’ve helped everyone from the financially destitute families, to flood and hurricane victims that had their belongings lost in a disaster.
So if your son’s Batman costume is getting too small for him, or your sweet princess decides she wants to be G.I. Joe next year, send their old costumes to ‘WEEN DREAM and help some other kid become the next princess or Dark Knight. Find out more about to help ‘WEEN DREAM here.
