By Margaret Lutz
Operation Christmas Child is nearing its shoebox drop-off deadline for 2009: Saturday, Nov. 21, at 3 p.m.
Shoeboxes with school supplies, hygienic items and age-appropriate toys will trucked to Calgary where volunteers sort and prepare them to be shipped to various countries in Central and South America such as Paraguay, Guatemala and Chile.
Empty shoeboxes can be picked up at Sobeys or upon request at Only Deals and Dollarama.
The filled shoeboxes may be dropped off at the local collection centre, which is Portage Alliance Church. The hours of the final week are: Thursday and Friday, from 8:30 a.m.-9 p.m., and Saturday, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. This will be the last day to drop off shoebox gifts at the church.
Local businesses, Pet Value in the Portage la Prairie Mall, and Portage Supermarket, on the east end of the city, will also accept shoeboxes during their normal operating hours up until 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Any shoeboxes completed after that date should be taken to the nearest Greyhound bus depot, from which they will be sent free of charge to the Calgary processing centre.
Several local schools, churches, businesses, as well as, families and grandparents are filling shoeboxes as part of their annual Christmas preparation. Photos and a message of love are often included in the personalized boxes. This is a tangible way of making an impact on a child and his or her family. This concept of “Kids giving to Kids” helps us appreciate all that we have available to us here in Portage, in contrast to the disparity of many children living in wartorn or poverty stricken countries.
This past Sunday, the first day of collection week, volunteers packed 999 shoeboxes into cartons for shipping to Calgary. That was to make room for the hundreds more that are expected. Organizers goal for the Portage area is more than 2,000.
As Clarise Klassen, a Portage resident and collection centre co-ordinator, can attest from personal experience last spring, watching the excitement and appreciation of the children receiving a shoebox, is a life-changing event! She accompanied a distribution team to Costa Rica with Samaritan’s Purse, an international evangelical relief organization.
Operation Christmas Child is the largest program run by this relief organization. The parents readily expressed appreciation to Canada — a country that cares.
A child will only ever receive one OCC shoebox in his or her lifetime. However, this shoebox distribution is often the beginning of a relationship between Samaritan’s Purse and the local community. The gift-filled shoebox opens the door to additional assistance such as water filters, feeding programs and medical care.
For further information about Operation Christmas Child, please call Sheila, 428-3817, or Margaret, 857-9958, or visit www.samaritanspurse.ca/occ.
