By Amy Batista, Special Writer
MONROE — Monroe Pediatric Dentistry took a stand against sweets this Halloween and decided to redefine the phrase, “put your money where your mouth is,” by participating in its first Halloween candy buy back program.
This Halloween, trick-or-treaters were encouraged to bring their excess candy to Monroe Pediatric Dentistry on Centre Drive where they could receive $1 per pound (up to 5 pounds) in return for their candy. In addition, they received electric glowing toothbrushes along with other giveaways.
Dr. Lisa Sobel of Morganville, the head dentist at Monroe Pediatric Dentistry, is leading the anti-decay movement in Monroe.
”Ditch the candy,” she said. “That’s what we’re saying. Visiting your dentist twice a year and brushing daily are great preventative measures, but doing away with excess sweets altogether would really give your teeth a healthy boost.”
Dr. Sobel added, “Kids can still have all the fun of trick-or-treating, and now their piggy banks will benefit as well.”
Candy was collected last week Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday during designated hours. A total of 630 pounds of candy was collected. Unopened candy will be shipped to troops overseas in conjunction with an organization called Operation Gratitude.
According to its website, Operation Gratitude annually sends 100,000 care packages filled with snacks, entertainment items and personal letters of appreciation addressed to individually named U.S. service members deployed in hostile regions, to their children left behind and to Wounded Warriors recuperating in transition units.
Its mission is to lift morale, bring a smile to a service member’s face and express to Armed Forces the appreciation and support of the American people. Each package sent by the organization to troops contains a donated product valued at $125 and costs the organization $15 to assemble and ship. Since its inception in 2003, Operation Gratitude volunteers have shipped more than 660,000 packages to American Military deployed overseas.
”We, at Monroe Pediatric Dentistry, are so happy to show the troops our appreciation,” Dr. Sobel said. “We are thrilled that we were able to give children the opportunity to show their appreciation for the troops as well. This program teaches the children the value of charity, civic duty and promotes good dental health.”
To make this event even more successful, Monroe Pediatric Dentistry also joined forces with Monroe Township public schools and made it a competition between the schools. Each school that participated in the program received a set of dental health books for their library.
The school that donated the largest amount of candy would receive a $250 donation from Monroe Pediatric Dentistry to its PTA.
Monroe Township schools donated a total of 421 pounds of candy. The school that won overall with 168 pounds of candy was Oak Tree Elementary School.
”We welcome opportunities to partner with local businesses,” said Dr. Kenneth Hamilton, superintendent of Monroe Township schools. “Besides the nutritional benefits of encouraging our students to give the candy away instead of consuming it, we also see this as an opportunity for them to experience service learning.”
”I heard about the candy buy back program from a flier my children brought home from school,” said Chrissy Skurbe, president of the Oak Tree School PTA. “My children, Bryant, 9, and Jessica, 6, were excited to know that the candy would be going to our military men and woman. My kids came home on Halloween and sat together to sort the candy and talked about how the candy would go to help the men and women who protect our country.
”When they donated the candy the next day, they both signed the card, and each donated back $1 of the money they received for their donation. They really felt good about what they did. We talked a lot about our military and why it is important to remember them, especially around the holidays.”
Ms. Skurbe added, “In addition to the buy back program helping the military, Dr. Lisa is also helping the students in Monroe. As the PTA president of the winning school, I am delighted. As a result of the recent school budget defeat and cuts in state funding for public school, PTAs are being asked to provide funds for more and more school activities. The donation from Dr. Lisa will be extremely helpful for our school this year.
”The Oak Tree PTA currently pays for all field trips for students at Oak Tree, as well as anti-bullying and character education assemblies, nutrition and literacy programs.”
Monroe Pediatric Dentistry had 215 children participate in its Halloween candy buy back program. The children donated $199 of the money they earned for donating their candy to Operation Gratitude.
”I especially want to say thank you to the troops, the children who donated their candy and dollars, Dr. Hamilton, the superintendent of the Monroe Township public schools for helping us promote this worthy cause, the entire school district and the PTOs,” Dr. Sobel said. “I also would like to thank each Monroe Pediatric Dentistry team member for working so hard to make this event a huge success.”
