Even though Halloween is over, candy is still everywhere. Around $400 million worth of candy is thrown out after Halloween. This year, Students in Action decided to collect leftover candy from Halloween for charity instead of letting it go to waste. 

Senior Reina Doten is co-running the candy collection this year. She is a part of SIA, where students control the Innerview website and service events. It is her second year in SIA but her first helping with the candy collection. 

“This event is a candy collection for stockings for the Soldiers for Soldiers organization,” Doten said. 

Stockings for Soldiers is a project that fills stockings full of candy (and other items) and ships them overseas to soldiers who cannot spend time with their families for the holidays. Doten said she hopes to collect “tons” of candy and feed a lot of soldiers.  

“Please support our troops and help them to feel better for the holidays,” Doten said.

Mrs. Duppel, a religion teacher and the SIA moderator, is helping run the candy collection. Meredith Frazier, a senior, came to her with the idea, and Duppel said she was happy to help. Although they have no numerical goal, she believes that there will be sizable donations from the students. 

“There’s not a goal, [but the] hope is that we get a good amount,” Duppel said. 

This year’s candy collection began on November 1 and concluded on November 5. Students dropped off candy in bins located in Duppel’s room.

Frazier came up with the idea to do the candy collection this year. She said she volunteered at Stockings for Soldiers and they needed more schools to help with their cause, so she took the opportunity. 

“I do a lot of things for Stocking for Soldiers, and this was just another way to help,” Frazier said.

Frazier said she hopes that there will be “a big amount” of candy donated. She said that even though the project is new, she believes many people will bring in their leftover Halloween candy and contribute. 

“I encourage people to bring any candy to ship to our soldiers overseas,” Frazier said. 

Frazier said she was grateful for Duppel and Doten’s help running this event with her.  Overall she said she feels that this year’s candy collection will be a success.

“I am very excited for this year’s candy collection,” Frazier said.   

The SIA has done projects for Stockings for Soldiers before, and Duppel said she thought that the candy collection was a nice way to help them again. 

“I am excited,” Duppel said, ”because it’s just another way for our students to reach out into the community and, in this case, to be able to support our troops.”