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Sweet Treats Donated to Troops Overseas

Dec 07, 2015 10:42AM ● By Rachel Hall

By Rachel Hall

South Valley - The holiday season is a time when people not only show their gratitude, but also go out of their way to brighten someone else’s day. With the help of the community, Dr. Chase Dansie, of Dansie Orthodontics in Herriman, collected nearly 140 pounds of candy as part of Operation Gratitude. 

“We had people come from all over the valley to donate. Quite a few just donated without the buy back. It was great to see the support for the troops,” Dansie said.

Dansie offered patients and community members an opportunity to sell their Halloween candy to him for $1 a pound, up to three pounds, until the office reached a goal of 500 pounds to package up and ship to troops overseas.

Giving back to the troops is just one of the ways that the program was a success. Kids who volunteered to donate their candy are also less likely to develop cavities or break the brackets on their braces.

“There are certain candies okay to eat with braces on, but the harder candies – if you eat them with braces on – it breaks those brackets off of them,” Dansie said.

However, most kids aren’t as concerned about the dental side effects as much as they are the taste when it comes to eating candy. That’s why Dansie believes those who donated were doing it as an act of kindness straight from the heart.

“The greater motivation is to help someone else and being since it is for the troops, I think that has resonated with them the most,” he said.

Choosing to give back to the troops overseas with this special project was also motivated by Dansie’s time spent living abroad.

“The big reason about sending it to the military is because I’ve lived abroad. When you’re far from home and it’s the holidays especially, it gets to be pretty lonely. And then you start thinking of home and everything,” he said.

Memories of finding a Twix candy bar when living in Brazil is still a fond recollection for Dansie who immediately recognized it as a little piece of home. 

“I’m imaging our military people that are in places that are far away, that they might not have had a memory from home for a while. It’s just something really nice. We hope they get a candy that they are familiar with and have a little memory from home and know people are thinking of them,” he said.

The timing of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas worked out well for the candy buy back according to Dansie. The sweet treats should reach the troops between Thanksgiving and Christmas time since the collection happened during the first few business days following Halloween.

“Christmas is about the time you start thinking of home so I think it is perfect timing. We’ve decided that after the great response from this year, that we are for sure going to keep doing it every year,” Dansie said.

For more information about Dansie           Orthodontics, visit www.dansieorthodontics.com