Orthodontist again offers cash for Halloween candy
CHAMPAIGN – Hey, kids, your Halloween candy could be worth some cold hard cash.
But there's a catch: You don't get to eat all those mini-chocolate bars and gummies you collect.
Dr. Wesley Chladny, a Champaign orthodontist, is once again offering to buy kids' Halloween candy for their health's sake and send it to some folks who could really use a treat – U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Chladny is also giving kids a chance to do some good for other children in addition to earning some money for themselves. For every pound of candy they bring him, up to 10 pounds, he'll pay them a dollar and donate another dollar to the local Crisis Nursery.
Kids don't need to be his patients to take advantage of the offer, Chladny said. The candy buy is open to all kids in the Champaign-Urbana and Mattoon-Charleston areas.
Chladny first offered to buy kids' Halloween candy last year, and thought maybe he'd wind up receiving 50 pounds of candy at each of his offices in Champaign and Charleston. The haul from both offices weighed in at 350 pounds.
Last year, local orthodontist Wesley Chladny collected 350 pounds of Halloween treats at his offices. By John Dixon
"We were kind of surprised. We didn't know what to expect," he recalls.
But, he adds, it was all for a good cause and worth doing again. Kids with braces wind up doing themselves some good, too, if they don't eat sticky and chewy treats such as caramel, taffy, bubble gum, popcorn and jellybeans, Chladny says. Every year, Chladny says, some kids with braces need to come and see him after Halloween because some of the sweets they ate caused problems for their braces.
This year, Chladny will buy Halloween candy at both his offices on the following dates and times.
Nov. 2, 4-6 p.m., 1607 18th St., Charleston.
Nov. 3, 4-6 p.m., 1715 Broadmoor Drive, C.
Have a loved one serving in the military overseas who might like to receive some of the candy? You can send an e-mail to Chladny's office at smilingillini<@>live.com to add the name to the candy mailing list.
Chladny is a Champaign native who received his dental education at the University of Illinois Chicago and completed his residency in orthodontics at the University of Oklahoma. He and his wife, April, have two children and live in Savoy.
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