Candy collected for a cause
SKYE POURNAZARI/DAILY FORUM
DeAnn Davision, Marketing Communications Specialist with SSM Health St. Francis Hospital and Dr. Markham Harris D.D.S., right, are shown with the candy, letters and drawings collected for the Operation Gratitude program.
Harris Dental and SSM Health St. Francis Hospital partnered, this year to buy back candy from parents and children in the days surrounding Halloween and send it to Operation Gratitude.
Operation Gratitude ships the candy in care packages to U.S. service members deployed overseas.
“It’s been great it’s been just a fun thing for us to be able to help the troops and to help kids not to eat as much candy as they probably do,” said Dr. Markham Harris D.D.S. “Halloween is one of my favorite times of year, but being a dentist … it’s a little scarier for me than it is for everyone else.”
Last year, Harris Dental collected right around 61 pounds of candy. This year, with a last-minute addition of 1.04 pounds from Wesley Metz, the two program participants collected 62.46 pounds.
“So, we are officially more than last year,” said Karri Genthe-Henderson of Harris Dental.
“The hospital is donating $2 per pound of candy that came in. Then we’ll mail this off and we’ll send it with toothbrushes. Of course, all the letters and pictures that were drawn.”
Children drew pictures and wrote letters of gratitude to their choice of either a wounded warrior, veteran, new recruit or deployed troop.
“I think there was more of a buzz about it this year,” said DeAnn Davison, Marketing Communications Specialist with the hospital.
Genthe-Henderson said, this year they handed out fliers at the Downtown Trick-or-Treat and that seemed to help collection.
“We sure have appreciated being able to partner with someone,” Harris said.
The two groups plan to collect the candy again next year with a goal of 75 pounds of candy.
“Operation Gratitude has shipped more than 1.9 million care packages to those who serve.
Operation Gratitude Founder, Carolyn Blashek said in a news release. “The candy is a great morale boost for the troops.”
According to the release, Americans spend an estimated $2.5 billion dollars on 600 million pounds of Halloween candy each year. In 2016, 533,891 pounds of that candy was sent to Operation Gratitude, a nonprofit, volunteer-based organization.
SKYE POURNAZARI/DAILY FORUM
With a last-minute candy donation, Wesley Metz hands his bag to Karri Genthe-Henderson of Harris Dental. His donation tipped the scale to officially more candy collected than they last year.
