On Friday, the day after children in Rindge spent the evening knocking on doors around town in search of candy, Zane Broome set up a table just inside the entrance of Rindge Memorial School.
As students passed by on their way into school they dropped off bags of extra candy to be donated to troops stationed overseas as part of Broome’s annual candy buy back program. For every pound of candy donated, Broome, owner of Monadnock Dental Associates in Jaffrey, donates $1 to the school to be used for whatever.
“It’s super helpful because we have a lot of activities we want to do to support our students and staff so every little bit helps,” said Rindge Memorial Principal Kelly Marcotte.
In the course of about 20 minutes, Broome filled multiple trash bags with roughly 92 pounds of candy that will be shipped to Operation Gratitude, based in California. Collection stations were also set up at Jaffrey Grade School and Highbridge Hill Elementary in New Ipswich, while he left a box in Rindge for students who forgot to bring theirs in.
While Broome is fully aware of what can happen when kids eat too much candy, the program isn’t meant for students to give away all their candy.
“Kids get so much candy at Halloween,” Broome said. “You just end up with way too much, so this is really the extra candy.”
Last year was a record for the buyback program, totaling 319 pounds.
“I could not believe how much candy is in 300 pounds,” Broome said.
It began in 2013, when Broome offered children to come to his office in Jaffrey to drop off any excess candy. There wasn’t a huge response, so the following year he set up the program in five area schools that generated more than 200 pounds. Over the last six years, the program has collected close to 1,300 pounds for Operation Gratitude.
“We didn’t see a lot of kids bring in candy, so I thought why not go to where the kids are,” Broome said.
The students also make cards for the troops that will be inserted into care packages with the candy. Broome also includes dental hygiene items.
The troops will use the candy as a source of goodwill, Broome said, along with tossing it out of convoy trucks – like in a parade – to keep the children in those countries safe and out of harms way as the trucks pass by.
The idea came after seeing an article about Operation Gratitude and Broome saw an opportunity.
“I thought that would be an awesome idea for community outreach and a great way to support our troops around Veterans Day,” Broome said.
While the bulk of the candy was collected on Friday, Broome also leaves boxes at the schools for those students who forgot to bring in their candy. As a consolation prize of sorts, Broome gives students a bag filled with a toothbrush, floss and toothpaste for donating.
Broome said it costs a lot of money to send hundreds of pounds of candy, but has been fortunate that Monadnock Community Hospital has paid for the shipping the last two years, with other area businesses helping with the bill before that.
He will collect the boxes this week, total up the amount and get it ready to ship. Then he will cut a check to each school to show his appreciation for the program.