Kids give up their sweet tooth for a good cause
BY DANIELLE MEDINA Correspondent

BRICK TOWNSHIP - Some less fortunate families and U.S. troops in the Middle East will benefit from more than 800 pounds of Halloween candy collected by students at St. Dominic School.

Kathi Gaspich's first-grade class recently participated in the Halloween Candy Buy-Back contest, sponsored by Ron Rotem, a Toms River-based dentist, who will ship the candy to troops serving in Iraq.

For collecting 837 pounds of candy, Rotem paid Gaspich's class $400.

And although Gaspich and her class could have used the money for their classroom, they decided to donate it to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry.

"All of St. Dominic School students are taught to reach out and give beyond themselves," said Gaspich. "At this time of year especially, we want our first-graders to understand giving and receiving. It didn't matter if they brought in one piece or 10 pounds of candy."

The St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry will use the money to provide holiday dinners to less fortunate families in the area, Gaspich said.

"Nobody eats Tootsie Rolls," said Gaspich. "That was the No. 1 candy we collected."

"I got to eat some of it," said 6-year-old Liam Mailley. "But I was OK with sending away the candy, even the Butterfingers. I wanted to help the poor people and the soldiers."

Seven-year-old Carmela Pescatore said parting with her favorite candy, Hershey bars, was the right thing to do.

"I wanted to put a smile on their faces," Pescatore said of the troops.

Getting rid of Halloween candy also put a smile on the faces of parents like Geraldine Mailley, who had "loads and loads of candy" from trick-or-treating.

"With Christmas right around the corner, we had so much candy that we'd never eat and just end up throwing out," she said. "It really is a win-win for everyone."

Rotem said he got the idea for the contest from other dentists around the country as a way of getting kids to give up their candy.

"My objective was to get children to eat less candy," said Rotem. "I hoped that buying back Halloween candy would be an incentive for them and make someone else's life a little sweeter at the same time."

Rotem paid children $1 per pound (up to $10 per family) and a winning teacher $400 to use in his or her classroom. The child who collected the most candy also received a $50 gift card.

Rotem said he collected a total of 2,700 pounds of candy from children in the local area, which far exceeded last year's total of 385 pounds.

"We thought it would be nice to get 400 or 500 pounds of candy this year," said Rotem. "We had someone bring in two garbage cans full of candy."

Rotem, who is working with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 400 in Wall Township on the project, said the candy will be part of care packages that are shipped to the troops throughout the year.