Cent4dent Blog

CANDY for US Troops
Local Dentist Sends almost 3 Tons of Candy to
US Armed Forces this Halloween

Haddon Heights, NJ – A dentist collecting candy to get it off the streets and out of local mouths

But where to put it? Two years ago, Dr. Markus came up with the idea to distribute it to the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the soldiers could use it to befriend local children. Two of the women who work for him have brothers stationed in harm’s way, and they agreed, the troops could really use the candy.

Last year, they collected and distributed about 1500 pounds of candy. This year, collections topped 5300 pounds! Last year, logistics became an obstacle: how to get all that candy out to the troops. But with the help of a great group of local volunteers it all became possible. This year, one of our patients undertook the task of trucking the candy where it had to go. “We truly couldn’t do this without the help of David Weiss and Paul Abrams from NFI Industries, (National Freight) which also collected candy in their local offices,” said Markus.

The trailer left last Thursday to an organization named Keystone Soldiers (www.keystonesoldiers.com) in Reading, PA, which is a 100% volunteer non-profit organization. Through their organization and website you can show your support by becoming a volunteer, writing letters and cards to our troops or sending a care package. You may also make a donation to help with postage or you can sponsor a special care package to one of our troops.

We would be remiss without thanking a local restaurant, BokBok Fresh, on White Horse Pike in Barrington which provided 500 buy one, get one free offer for kids’ meals. For every pound of candy that kids brought in, they got a raffle ticket. One lucky winner, Tim Renzi of Haddonfield won a 1 Gigabyte mp3 player donated by Jesse, owner of the Marlton Radio Shack. Chuck, from Sign-A-Rama of Cherry Hill donated the sign on the lawn, Fox TV and 6 ABC provided great coverage as well. RCF Containers donated all the boxes we needed to ship the candy in.

“Fifty-three hundred pounds exceeded all expectations, and certainly it would be difficult to imagine that any other area of the country could beat the donations from the citizens of South Jersey,” said Dr. Markus. There were over 200 offices nationwide involved in this campaign. “Next year, we hope to fill up the entire trailer,” said assistants. We have also asked the soldiers to post pictures of the way they’ve used the candy to the weblog on our website in thank you notes that we’ve distributed in all the boxes. Additionally, many local schools did major collections, some collecting over 600 pounds of candy. Many of the students wrote beautiful thank you notes to the soldiers, which we included randomly in the boxes we’ve shipped.

There was also an added bonus for parents: They received a gift certificate that can be worth over $300 for treatment in our office in gratitude. The big story though, is the smiles on the kids faces that we saw when they know that something they worked on went for the better good.