Neary School collecting candy (and/or cash) for troop care packages through November 9

Above: Have too much candy in your house? Neary School will be happy to take it off your hands and ship it overseas. (Images posted to flickr – candy by The Tedster and soldier handing out sweets at an orphanage by NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan)

Between this past weekend and last night’s trick or treating, your kids may be collecting way more candy than you plan to let them eat. (Or maybe you overestimated the number of kids who’d be ringing your bell – and you’re the one with too many treats on your hands.)

Neary School wants your extra sweets again. But don’t worry – they aren’t planning to give the 4-5th graders a massive sugar rush.

The school is sending its traditional candy care package to thank our overseas troops. They are also looking for small cash donations to help with shipping costs.

And the school is welcoming input on service members to ship packages to. (Examples shared in the message to Neary families included residents, ARHS graduates, relatives, or even a “friend of a friend”.)

You can send your candy (or cash) in through a Neary student. The deadline for the drive is Friday, November 9th.

Here are the details the school sent in recent Virtual Backpacks:

For the last eighteen years, the students at Neary School have collected Halloween candy. For the past thirteen years, we have sent the candy to soldiers stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other countries. The soldiers we sent the candy to shared the candy with their platoon as well as Iraqi and Afghani children.

We have received back wonderful letters of gratitude, pictures of soldiers, a flag flown over a base in Afghanistan and most recently, several military challenge coins. All of the soldiers we have sent candy to over the years have returned home safely, so now we are looking for other soldiers to whom we can send candy. If you know of someone from Southboro or an ARHS graduate or a relative or a friend of a friend who is stationed overseas, please let Mrs. Turieo know via e-mail and we will send him/her a package full of treats. We are also looking for small cash donations to subsidize the cost of shipping. Last year we sent over 35 boxes and the shipping cost around $700. If each child brings in a small donation, we will have more than enough money.

There will be collection boxes outside of Mrs. Turieo’s room (Room 2) for candy donations from Thursday, November 1st through Friday, November 9th.

Children who want to participate can bring the candy to school and place it in the box themselves. For storage reasons, please send only prepackaged candy.

The response from the students each year has been fantastic. Most of the children anticipate Halloween so eagerly. Although we do collect food items throughout the year, giving a small amount of their own candy makes the donation even more personal for the children.

Thank you for your support!