Pulaski School students collect 1,092 pounds of candy for overseas troops

For the second year in a row, Pulaski Street Elementary School students organized a Halloween Candy Drive Competition by weighing and boxing candy from their Halloween stash to send to deployed soldiers overseas.

The “Candy for the Troops” competition was started by Cyndi Haverty’s sixth grade class.

The Brookhaven National Lab’s Vets Association  “Adopt-a-Platoon” program will send the candy off in shipments throughout the year along with other necessities for the soldiers especially lots of toothbrushes and toothpaste. Every month they will ship supplies to troops deployed in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The first shipment will be for Thanksgiving, according to retired BNL employees and Vets Association volunteers Bob and Sue Duffin of Cutchogue.

This year the students collected 1,092 pounds of candy, almost twice what was collected last year which was 681 pounds.

According to associate principal Steven Hudson every class in the school collected between 50 and 70 pounds of Halloween treats.

In one instance, fifth-grader Hayden Richardson, 10 and her brother sixth-grader Carter, 11, recruited the help of the CVS in Wading River where they live to donate all their unsold candy to the students. 

The two classes that collected the most will be treated to a pizza party. The winners this were were Cory Swenk’s fifth-grade class and Tracy Martin’s sixth-grade class.

Photo caption: Hayden Richardson, 10, (front row seated), along with Mr. Cory Swenk’s fifth-grade class Thursday afternoon. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch)