The day after Halloween children are often tired from a night filled with Halloween parties, trick-or-treating and the aftermath of a glorious sugar rush. This year however, the children of Selma and Dallas County had an opportunity to cut back on their excess Halloween candy intake and share their candy with those who didn’t spend Wednesday night at Halloween parties or enjoying a rush of sugar. They shared the candy instead with those who were fighting for our freedom overseas.

Wood Orthodontics offered a Halloween candy buyback program where children received cash and other prizes in exchange for their unused, leftover Halloween candy. This was the first year Wood Orthodontics participated in the program, and in three hours they garnered 60 pounds of donated candy. That candy will be shipped through Operation Gratitude to U.S. service men and women in Iraq.

With this program, “Everybody wins,” Brett Wood of Wood Orthodontics, said Thursday. “The troops get the candy. The kids don’t get the cavities; the parents want to get rid of the candy; they get the money, and we get to interact with people in the community, so it’s really good all the way around.”

Children who donated candy received goodie bags with a coupon for a free kid’s meal at Zaxby’s, a new toothbrush, toothpaste, floss and $1 in cash for every pound of candy they donated. They were also entered to win a $50 gift card to dinner at El Rancheros and four movie passes to the Selma Walton Theater.

And although Wood Orthodontics received more than 50 pounds of candy, the turn out was less than they were hoping for. Wood said they’re already thinking of ways to improve for next year.

“It’s a good first run,” Wood said. “I think it’ll grow as we do it in future years. We think a lot of kids like eating their candy, more so than getting the money.”

Wood and his staff sent out fliers detailing the buyback program and said that most of the children didn’t really understand what it was for and where the candy would be going.

“With the fliers, they would read it, but not really comprehend that [the candy] was going to the troops,” said Carolyn Jones, who works at the front desk of Wood Orthodontics.

Jones said all of the children who donated their candy were very excited.

“And it’s fun for us,” she said.

This year marked the first of many future opportunities children will have to participate in the candy buyback program at Wood Orthodontics.

“We are definitely going to do it next year,” Wood said. “Without a doubt.”