Hello Dental Friends,
It’s October and it’s time
to put the Halloween Candy
Buy Back on the front
burner!
Here are answers to the most
frequently asked questions
I’m receiving this year:
What day should we
hold the Buy Back?
Last year most offices held
theirs on Thursday, November
1st including our
office, and we ran ours from
3:30pm until 6:00pm. This
year many offices will be
holding it on the Monday
after Halloween and others
over the weekend. We will be
holding our hcbb on
Saturday, November 1st
from 11am until 2:00pm. We
have chosen to limit the
time to a few hours in order
to pack all the excitement
into a short period of time
and to have less disruption
during our normal office
hours.
Can we use a
bathroom scale to weigh the
candy?
You can use a bathroom scale
if this is your only option,
and a larger postal scale
would work as well. We
borrow a butcher’s scale
which is accurate to the
hundredth of a pound and of
course we round up!
How much do we pay
for the candy?
Some offices accept candy
and do not give a financial
incentive, and other offices
pay $2 per pound. At my
office we offer $1 per pound
which is the most common
among other offices as
well.
Where do we get the
money to pay for the candy?
Some offices have sponsors
that are covering their
expenses but most, like my
office, are donating their
own money towards this great
cause. Last year we
collected 700 pounds of
candy from 177 kids for $627
Some of the candy was
donated, and several
children donated their money
toward the shipping cost of
the candy.
How much money
should we expect to go
through?
We listed the amount of
candy collected by all the
office who reported that
information to us last
year. The list is here
www.thesmileexperts.com/halloween. It
appears as though the
average is approximately 500
pounds although some offices
collected as much as 6000
pounds!!
What else do we
offer the kids?
Almost every office gave
Firefly Toothbrushes from
the Dr. Fresh company (see
below for more information
on how to obtain Firefly
toothbrushes). In addition
to this, many offices gave
coupons for free fries or a
free kids meal from a local
restaurant. We had three
local restaurants donate
coupons last year. Make some
calls! You’ll be surprised
to find many businesses
eager to donate. Make sure
your sponsors get the
publicity and the thank
you’s they deserve.
How do we ship the
candy to Iraq?
There is no need to ship the
candy to Iraq. You should
ship your candy to Operation
Gratitude and they will
address hundreds of
thousands of gift boxes each
with an individual soldiers
name on it (see below for
more on Operation
Gratitude).
Who pays to ship the
boxes to Operation
Gratitude?
A few offices have sponsors
that are covering their
shipping expenses, but most,
like my office, are donating
their own money towards this
great cause.
There is a great deal more
information available online
in last year’s newsletters.
They can be found at
www.dentalproshop.com/halloween/news.
There are 10 newsletters
online,
be sure to read them all!
