Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes to be collected soon

Posted By Herald-Leader Staff

Posted 16 days ago

File photo...Margaret Lutz, of Operation Christmas Child, visited Oakville School last year where she educated the students on the benefits of OCC, a program that sees people fill a shoebox with gifts that are shipped to children in desperate situations around the world.

Sometimes miracles do happen.

Sheila Knox, Portage la Prairie area co-ordinator for Operation Christmas Child (OCC), related the story of one recent miracle that involved an OCC shoebox.

She had heard of a little boy in one of the South American countries that this region's boxes are delivered to who showed up to get his box and was crying because his twin brother was home sick and couldn't be there to receive a box.

But when he opened his box, he received the most wonderful surprise.

"He started crying all over again because in the box was two of everything," Knox related.

And it wasn't even planned that he would get that particular box, she pointed out. It just somehow ended up reaching someone who needed it.

Right now, boxes are being filled by people across Canada for shipment to Central and South America, and even to Africa. In the Portage area, shoeboxes can be dropped off at the local collection centre, Portage Alliance Church, during office hours for the next week. The final deadline there is Nov. 21 at 3 p.m.

"We're slowly getting some boxes in," Knox noted. "We don't expect most of them to come in until the 15th of November or the 21st of November."

After that, Knox said, local truck drivers and transport companies, such as Jake Klassen of MacGregor and Portage Transport, will then donate their time and energy to deliver the OCC shoeboxes to the Calgary processing centre.

Greyhound Bus Lines also accepts the boxes and ships them to the nearest processing centre in Canada.

Several schools throughout Portage la Prairie and the Central Plains are packing boxes, as well as numerous churches, Hutterite colonies and even a nursery school or two, the area co-ordinator said, as well as businesses helping to collect the boxes.

Last year, about 2,000 of the boxes were shipped out from this area, she added.

"More people have seemed to be getting involved, as well, which really helps," Knox said.

Boxes packed for OCC should contain things such as school supplies, hygiene items and age-appropriate toys, Knox listed. Boxes should not contain toothpaste, anything that can freeze or melt, any war-related toys such as toy guns or anything that can harm a child. Playing cards should also not be included as they are associated with gambling in some countires.

The items don't need to be packed in an actual OCC red and green shoebox — any similarly-sized box will do — and they don't necessarily need to be packed in a shoebox, Knox revealed.

Packages for older children can be packed into a similarly sized toolbox or fish tackle box or even a small, child-sized backpack, she said.

Something else the OCC encourages is people to include a photo of themselves and their family and a simple note in the box, says local OCC media representative Margaret Lutz.

"They like to see who prepared it," Lutz noted.

Lutz had the pleasure of going to Chile in January 2007 with Samaritan's Purse, the organization that runs the OCC program, to help hand out the boxes and knows what a difference they can make in the lives of the children in the Central and South American countries, such as Costa Rica, Paraguay and Nicaragua.

From the Portage Alliance Church, the boxes are shipped to Calgary where volunteers inspect each one to ensure nothing verboten is in them, and then pack them back up to be shipped overseas.

Volunteers with Samaritan's Purse then hand out the boxes in each countries.

"They have a great big huge party for the kids and at the end they hand out the boxes," Knox said.

Each child will receive only one shoebox in their lifetime.

People can drop their boxes off at Portage Alliance Church on Nov. 15 until 3 p.m., Nov. 16 -18 from 8:30 a.m-5 p.m., Nov. 19 and 20 from 8:30 a.m.-9 p.m. and Nov. 21 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Portage Supermarket and Pet Value will also accept boxes during their regular business hours.

OCC also asks for a donation of $7 to help with shipping of the boxes overseas, but it is not mandatory. People can also donate money if they don't wish to pack a box.

Boxes can also be picked up at Portage Alliance Church, Pet Value, Portage Supermarket and Sobeys.

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