Kalona and Riverside Family Dental collected candy to send to Operation Gratitude November 1. Photo courtesy of Kalona Family Dental.

Smiles were shared and candy was collected at Kalona Family Dental November 1, as Kalona and Riverside Family Dental held their fourth annual Candy Buy Back event.

Kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes, bags of candy in tow as the dental clinics paid visitors $2 per pound of candy. Dr. Tammy Grimm comments on the event turn out, “We had a record breaking year. I believe last year we had 80 pounds of candy and this year we had 120 pounds of candy so a significant amount more. We also had more kiddos come. I believe the count for this year was 32 children.”

There was entertainment and fun for the kids who attended, as raffle tickets were given for every pound of candy they brought and for each activity they took part in. The 120 pounds of candy was shipped to Operation Gratitude, an organization that sends care packages to deployed armed forces troops.