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Every year when Halloween passed, Rebecca Kahlenberg of Bethesda was left haunted by the specter of a house full of candy.

"As a mom, you want it out of the house, and it's a dilemma what to do with it," Kahlenberg said. "You can only send so much to the office."

So the founder of the Bethesda charity group Mover Moms searched the Internet for a way to get rid of the sugar in a sweet way, and found a West Virginia group called Boatsie's Boxes that sends 20,000 Christmas stockings to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan each year.

Kahlenberg saw the opportunity to make the Halloween season a little bit merrier, and began a Treats for Troops drive last year to get leftover Halloween candy to contribute to the stockings in Boatsie's Boxes.

"It's a really feel-good project, you know, instead of just throwing it away or sneaking it out of your house, you're giving it to a good cause," Kahlenberg said. "In these times of political divide and economic crisis, this is one of those no brainer win-win type things."

Last year the project generated a truckload of candy that Kahlenberg and fellow Mover Mom Cheryl Fisher drove to Boatsie's Boxes headquarters in Wheeling, W. Va. This year, donations might require more room.

"We've got so much candy we're going to try to rent a cargo truck or something," Fisher said.

The group has been collecting candy at four area sites since Sunday, and will continue to accept donations through tonight at 7101 Loch Lomond Drive in Bethesda and 11110 Candlelight Lane in Potomac, and then will drive it to Wheeling Thursday.

Gail Van Vranken, the founder of Boatsie's Boxes, calls the help "a tremendous bonus." Van Vranken assembles the stockings with toiletries, candy and other items to boost morale and show support.

"It saves us a tremendous amount of money," Van Vranken said. "What Mover Moms is doing is just so great because they drive the candy up here for five hours and then they turn around and drive right back."