With the Christmas season fast approaching, Operation Christmas Child is starting up once again, and what better place to pack your holiday box than at a packing party?
“It is something fun that we wanted to put together for preschool and kindergarten age kids with their parents,” said organizer Melanie Hannah. “It is the first year we have done it. Hopefully people will come out and have a good time.”
Operation Christmas Child is organized by the Christian organization Samaritan’s Purse and aims to supply necessary items to underprivileged children around the world. Information about what can be put into the shoebox can be found online at samaritanspurse.ca. The organization asks that participants determine whether your gift will be for a boy or a girl, and also the child’s age category, listed as 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14.
Samaritan’s Purse says to fill the shoebox with school supplies, hygiene items, toys and other gifts and a personal note. Items they ask people not to include are decks of standard playing cards, food or soft candy, used items, toothpaste, liquids or items that could freeze or leak or could scare or harm a child such as war-related toys.
The Preschool Packing Party will take place Friday, Nov. 14 from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m. at the Cochrane Alliance Church. Hannah said that boxes would be provided and they would supply some items to include in the boxes. She said they request that people bring at least one or two items to add to the stockpile.
Hannah explained that the idea is that each child and parent team would be able to go to each of the gift stations and pick an item to pack in their box. From there, the children would move to a letter and card-making station to send a personal message along with their box.
Hannah said the program is something she is passionate about and started doing it herself over a decade ago. She said she got the idea for the packing party from the Samaritan’s Purse website.
She said that the event and the shoebox program is a really great way for people to reach beyond themselves and is great for children who may have never received a gift before or who do not have a lot of bright spots in their day in war-torn countries.
“It is something fun for kids here to do and a way for them to see Christmas differently, that it’s not all about getting, that they can give too,” she added.
National collection week is Nov. 17-23 and collection locations can be found on the website along with the destinations of the shoeboxes. Operation Christmas Child has collected over 100 million shoebox gifts since it started in 1990, according to the website. It also stated that in 2013 Canadians donated more than 864,000 shoeboxes. For more information on the event contact Hannah at 403-461-6361.
