Pulaski Street School students collected more then 1,000 pounds of candy to send to United States troops overseas, nearly doubling the amount they raised during last year’s collection.
The candy will be sent to troops overseas along with handwritten letters and cards from Pulaski School and district elementary school students.
The school’s “Candy for the Troops” collection event began last year with help from the Brookhaven National Lab Veterans Association. The event encourages kids to donate candy from their Halloween stashes to send to deployed soldiers.
Brookhaven National Lab covers the shipping costs overseas, and the classes that have collected the most candy receive a pizza party.
This year’s donation was made much larger by a generous donation from CVS in Wading River after one Pulaski fifth grader mentioned the candy drive to an employee.
“The person behind the counter asked me if I got a lot of candy for Halloween, and I said, ‘I did, but I’m donating it to the military people,’” said Hayden Richardson, who is in Cory Swenk’s fifth grade class.
The employee asked if Hayden could take the pharmacy’s leftover Halloween candy as a donation for the troops.
“She asked the manager and talked to my dad, and pretty soon we had two carloads of candy,” Hayden said.
When all was said and done, CVS had given Hayden and her father about $2,800 worth of candy to donate.
Hayden shared half the candy with her brother, who is a sixth grader at Pulaski, so that his class could also win the pizza party prize.
The drive was organized by sixth grade teacher Cyndi Haverty.
The survival of local journalism depends on your support.
We are a small family-owned operation. You rely on us to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Just a few dollars can help us continue to bring this important service to our community.
Support RiverheadLOCAL today.
