By Kelly Young
kyoung@jacksonvilleprogress.com
The Jacksonville Public Library is collecting candy donations to benefit men and women serving the United States armed forces in Afghanistan. Throughout the end of April, anyone interested in contributing any sweets to this worthy cause need only bring their donations to the library and drop them off at the front desk.
The candy drive is the brain-child of Children’s Librarian Peggy Jo Jones, who grew up in a military family, and sees this as a small but thoughtful way of encouraging the troops.
“I was thinking about how Easter is coming up soon and that made me think about candy, and I just thought it might be a good idea to have a candy drive for the troops,” Jones said. “We will take any kind of candy, but because chocolate will probably melt before it gets to the troops, it might be a good idea to mostly send them candy without chocolate — things like Skittles, suckers, hard candy and other things like that.”
The candy collecting began at the beginning of March, and will continue until April 30. Jones has already accumulated a box full of sugar-laden contributions, but she said there is no limit to how much she can accept.
“I’m surprised by how much we have received already; we have collected quite a bit — but we could always use a lot more,” she said.
The candy will make it to the soldiers through the assistance of Soldiers’ Angels, the nation’s largest all-volunteer military support organization.
Jones said the library, to her knowledge, has never participated in a candy drive, nor has it organized any other type of donation drive to benefit the military.
“I just wanted to give the soldiers a small reminder from home that we are back here supporting them,” Jones said. “I just had the thought one day that this would be a nice way to let them know that our thoughts are with them.”
