Joy and Lou
Landau have
a sweet
family tradition
when
it comes
to helping
kids

DEBBIE WALLIS LANDAU

Special to The Jewish News

J

oy and Lou Landau believe
most kids — even those
society calls bad — are basi-
cally good. They also believe
those youngsters who have
gone astray, been abused or neg-
lected needn't be forgotten during
those moments which transform
youth with their sense of mystery
like Halloween and Christmas,
Purim and Chanukah.
That's one reason the Landaus
will be busy sorting Milky Ways and
M & M's after most Michigan chil-
dren have already sated themselves
on sugar, bartered trendy stickers
and compared loots of pennies, nic-
kels and dimes collected this Hallo-
ween.
For the 27th consecutive year,
the Landau's Oak Park household
will be the clearinghouse for a fam-
ily enterprise that has been locally
known for years as "The Candy
Lady." The beneficiaries of the treats
collected from area schools and indi-

viduals will be the 500 residents of
the W.J. Maxey Training School in
Whitmore Lake.
It's the Landaus' way of trying
to provide some link, however small,
to the life that goes on outside that
rehabilitation center.
"We'll probably get only about
400 pounds of candy items this
year," Joy estimates. In some past
years, we received as many as 2,000
pounds. It's most likely attributable
to the massive scares — lots of
families now provide non-food items
for the trick-or-treaters."
Joy started the venture as a way
to help mothers get unwanted candy
out of their homes. Through the
years, she has regularly placed press
releases in local newspapers.
We had some papers say they
didn't want to participate in a drive
for juvenile delinquents," Joy recalls.
"Well, we have never tried to convey
an image of reforming society ... it's
been, rather, our goal to give a small
dose of pleasure to some youngsters
whose lives are pretty devoid of
treats, and also to instill the good

feeling of giving in young children."
Some unusual incidents over the
years were blessings in disguise.
"I've had mothers who had a diabetic
child tell me this was a way of let-
ting their kid go out trick-or-
treating. Maybe they'd be allowed to
sample one treat and then they felt
good about donating their cache to
someone else."
While the name "Candy Lady"
has stuck throughout the years, the
drive is in every way a family effort.
Daughters Sharon and Maureen, son
Barry and husband Lou have rotated
pick-up and delivery of the treats.
The candy drive is just one ac-
tivity in a year-round portfolio of
shared projects for the Landaus.
A Christmas gift drive gets
underway long before the leaves
change colors. As self-appointed San-
tas, the Landaus amass new, un-
wrapped gifts to be donated to the
residents of the Oakland County
Juvenile Home (Children's Village)
in Pontiac as well as the Maxey cen-
ter.

Continued on next page