Kids’ fund drive for UNICEF broadens to a month

NEW YORK – For a growing population of kids the tradition of trick-or-treating includes saving the lives of children around the world by participating in Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF.

This Halloween trick-or-treaters will want more than candy. They will want money, so have those coins ready!

Since 1950, children in the United States have shown their commitment to improving the lives of their global peers by toting the famous orange box on Halloween and throughout October to collect money for UNICEF, a global organization whose goal is to bring health, education, equality and protection to every child in the world.

Issues including education, immunization and malnutrition have motivated children to raise $123 million to help support UNICEF programs around the world.

Kids enjoy participating in Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF because it allows them to take action and make a global impact right from their own neighborhood.

In recent years, Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF has evolved from traditional door-to-door collection on Halloween night into a monthlong nationwide education campaign – endorsed by the country’s leading education associations – in which kids in the classroom learn about the needs of children worldwide and proactively raise money on their behalf.

Of the $4 million raised by kids around the country in last year’s Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign, the majority of the money was raised by kids working from within their school, religious or service group.

Children and families wanting to participate in this year’s campaign can still do so by picking-up a box at Pier 1 Imports, IKEA or a participating supermarket. Throughout this month, Pier 1 is distributing boxes at more than 1,000 locations, and IKEA has boxes available through all its U.S. stores.

Participants no longer have to finger through the mounds of collected coins, since donations can also be made through Coinstar Inc., which owns and operates a network of self-service coin-counting machines in major supermarket chains nationwide. Coinstar makes it easy to give to the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF program by accepting direct donations through its network of supermarket-based machines 365 days a year.

What Can UNICEF do with a box full of change?

For example, $1 can buy six storybooks for a school library; $10 can buy a carton of high-protein biscuits to feed three malnourished children for one month, and $17 protects a child against measles, polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, tuberculosis and tetanus.