AUBURN — Center Street Dental hosted its annual Halloween Candy Buyback fundraiser Sunday evening at Norway Savings Bank Arena.

Students from schools across Auburn, Greene, Monmouth, Leeds and Turner had a chance to donate unwanted or leftover candy in exchange for $1 per pound for themselves and 50 cents for their schools.

The collected candy will be donated to Operation Gratitude in California, where it will then be distributed to deployed U.S. troops.

In addition to candy, families may also donate costumes for kids to wear next Halloween to the Lewiston-Auburn Police Activities League program.

This was the fifth year that Center Street Dental has held the Candy Buyback event, but the first year it has been held at the arena. During the fundraiser, one of two ice rinks was open for a free public skate. No donation was required to use the rink. 

Dr. Rosemarie Sheline, known as “Dr. Rose,” of Center Street Dental, was on site to greet families as they came in and to hand out toothbrushes and flyers about dental health. She was pleased with the turnout and candy collected this year.

At the end of the evening, 250 pounds of candy and one 30-gallon bag of costumes had been donated.

“Last year, we collected over 270 pounds of candy,” Dr. Rose said, “but that was over a week in our office. So to collect this much in just one evening is definitely still good.”