After the joys of trick-or-treating and eating as much candy as possible wares off, be sure to keep all that leftover candy. The Marblehead Police Department will be collecting candy for Operation Troop Support again this year. 

Beginning back in March of 2003, founder Dick Moody was a member of the US Air Force for what had been twenty-three years. At the time Moody also had two children who were active duty in Iraq, his daughter a nurse and his son a military police officer.

“So they called us and asked if we could help them out,” Moody said. “Help them out by sending something for the recovering patients to keep their mind off the pain of recovery.” 

Since then, organized care packages, comfort items, support groups, and holiday gifts are all ways Operation Troop Support shows love and appreciation to the deployed men and women. 

Beginning only with churches and schools mentioning to families to bring in their leftover Halloween candy, it has since picked up such attention that Moody says his home becomes overfilled with leftover candy.

This halloween looks to be no different, it’s been roughly fifteen years that the Marblehead Police Department has been collecting candy for troops. 

“It has been absolutely tremendous every single year we do it,” said Captain Matt Freeman. “We have to take a truck loaded with boxes over to the troop support people.”

Moody, in agreement with Captain Freeman, said the same, “Marblehead has probably been in the forefront of giving us the most.” Moody later added, “I always get a kick out of the guys when they come over because they started off with automobiles and they went to pickup trucks.”

Every Halloween kids and families enjoy their favorite candy, our troops overseas don’t have that same pleasure. Moody shared that he went back overseas in 2005, where he found himself in the recovery room at the time a package from Operation Troop Support was being received. He said it brought tears to his eyes seeing the overwhelming joy on other soldiers’ faces having some of the candy they haven’t seen since being deployed. 

If a donation is considered, the Marblehead police station will be accepting all candy donations between Friday, Nov. 1 and Friday, Nov 15. After that the donations will be closed and the candy will begin being packaged and prepared to be sent over to our troops for them to enjoy. 

If you would like to learn more about Operation Troop Support and their story visit them at operationtroopsupport.org