Voorhees resident and Haddonfield Memorial High School student Reese Titton organizes a candy drive to donate to The Unforgotten Haven in Blackwood for second consecutive year, bringing in 500 pounds of candy.
For the second consecutive year, Haddonfield Memorial High School junior and Voorhees resident Reese Titton organized a candy drive at her school to donate to The Unforgotten Haven in Blackwood.
The collection period ran from Monday, Oct. 28 through Friday, Nov. 1 with three collection sites in Haddonfield (two in the high school, one at Starbucks), one at the Cherry Hill Health and Racquet Club, and one stationed at her house in Voorhees. On Saturday, Nov. 2, it took two trips to bring all of the donations, which was about 500 pounds.
Michele Gambone, founder of The Unforgotten Haven, was excited to see Titton’s enthusiasm and vibrancy when Titton had proposed the drive last year.
“I love her. She’s such a ray of sunshine,” Gambone said of Titton. Although the nonprofit has been doing candy intakes for a number of years, Gambone was impressed that Titton had also been doing candy collections before she even knew about them.
Titton grew up collecting and giving candy away with her family. When she was younger, after they collected candy, they would sometimes donate it to the Ronald McDonald House, or food pantries, but she only started partnering with The Unforgotten Haven last year.
“The biggest impact (from this experience) has been to just give back, help out, be someone that someone can look up to and look for, for help and this experience has taught me how to be super grateful for what I have and for what an amazing community I am a part of,” Titton said.
“When we brought in the candy to Unforgotten Haven, all the people who help out with the nonprofit were in shock, amazed, like super happy and that felt so good to put a smile on so many peoples’ faces, and I’m so glad to help out with this candy collection,” Titton said. “Last year was the first year I did the candy drive with the Unforgotten Haven and this year we decided to continue the tradition.
“It’s been an incredible experience. I think we’ve helped a lot of people, so I’m so grateful for the Haddonfield community for pitching in and giving all their support.”
When Titton was researching organizations to donate to, she chose The Unforgotten Haven because she loved their mission and wanted to help. The nonprofit focuses on providing for the homeless and food insecure, but also does missions to provide for people across the country for disaster relief. In a month, The Unforgotten Haven provides for about 450 families through the food pantries and provide around 3,000 to 4,000 bagged lunches per month.
Though Halloween is their biggest intake of candy, the nonprofit collects candy year-round. In addition to Titton’s collection drive, Gambone estimates they’ve received around 1,500 pounds of candy, or 2,000 pounds total and that it will last them around six months to share with the community. Titton attributed the large donation to Haddonfield’s fall spirit.
“It’s like the best time to be in Haddonfield, in the fall,” Titton remarked. “I feel like in most towns, people probably stop trick or treating in middle school, but the cool thing about Haddonfield which makes it super unique is that it’s just a thing. Everybody goes trick or treating, people go trick or treating until they’re seniors in high school, and it’s just normalized.”
At school, Titton had a collection bin on both the first and second floors of the schools and put posters in the walls and classrooms for the students to see. Though she will be graduating next year, she would like to pass the tradition on to an underclassman.
“It was super easy because it was so much fun,” she reflected. “Everybody really wanted to help and be part of it, and that made it even easier because of the great community.”
To learn more about the Unforgotten Haven, visit https://www.theunforgottenhaven.org/.
Outside of candy donations, Titton is also the founder of “Super Special Socks,” a nonprofit that raises funds for New Jersey classrooms of different abilities with tie-dye socks. They are most active in March, since March 21st is World Down Syndrome day, because the socks look similar to chromosomes. Learn more at https://www.instagram.com/SuperSpecialSocks/.
This article was updated on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024 to correct the spelling of Titton’s name.
