Currents News Staff
His name is Fred Reagan, but his nickname is: “The Candy Man” and it’s easy to see why.
The 77-year-old Lakefield man is preparing for his 17th Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk in October.
“I started doing it with a good friend of mine who lost his daughter in law, 30 years of age, with cancer,” Reagan said.
His goal is to raise $20,000 for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“He’s really what we want all of our supporters to be like,” said Zachary Blackburn, Assistant Vice President of the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk. “Just that passion, that energy. Fred himself, through the end of last year, has raised just shy of $107,000”
How does he do this? By way of mail.
“I’ll send out about 260 letters this year and I had a stamp made at Staples that says AKA the Candyman,” Reagan said.
And by selling Hilliards Chocolates.
“This is our chocolate bars for the fundraising program,” said Maegan McCarthy Dec, the Hilliards Chocolates President. “There’s 40 chocolate bars in there. They are $1 each and then they can resell them for $2 or whatever they choose to.”
Now in his 12th year of using the program, Fred says he’s close to selling his 100,000th candy bar!
“It’s very close,” Reagan said. “I think by the end of October, November, I will have hit 100-thousand candy bars.”
Fred sells the candy bars out of a cooler in his car but he also works with about 20 local businesses – some that he visits weekly to drop off boxes of chocolate.”
“He’s great. He is amazing,” said Cale Rynscewicz from Winbergs Hardware. “He’s such a joy to have around. Every time he’s around I’m always smiling, I’m always laughing.”
“I drive around,” said Reagan. “I probably put 5 to 6,000 miles on my car every year but that’s okay. It’s a good cause. And one of these days, we’re going to have a cure for cancer.”