Shoeboxes start their journey to Kyrgyzstan....

What a special day! Wednesday was the day the container arrived at our warehouse to be packed up with shoeboxes, starting their long journey to Kyrgyzstan, which is over land and sea. Then once  in Kyrgyzstan they travel over bumpy, almost impassable roads and tracks to finally reach their destination in the various places identified by our partners locally. Of course this will take several months but will arrive by their New Year in March.

The container was huge. In fact it could not get into the building but it could reverse right up to the door, allowing us to move the cartons up to the edge of the vehicle and load it from there.

Ted whilst not helping at all, took centre stage in supervising the loading.

What a lot of hands we had which made the work far easier and, with the mix of enthusiasm, before we knew it, the container was full to the brim and ready for the start of the journey.

Ted once again, looked on and thought, "Yes I am going to Kyrgyzstan so I'd better jump in there". But no Ted your job is not done yet, besides there is room for some more cartons.

Carolyn thanked everyone for their dedication and hard work, not only for this year but also for the previous years in which she has led Operation Christmas Child. She spoke of how far the operation had come, from the small room in the YMCA ten years ago when they very proudly checked 2000 boxes, to the big warehouse of today, where 13,000 boxes have been checked and packed already this year. Carolyn also chose this time to announce that she would no longer be leading the team as she felt it was her time to move on, she also has family ties and has planned to go New Zealand to see her son next year. Everyone was saddened to hear she will be leaving. However, in doing so she leaves an amazing team who will continue her work as she has inspired each and everyone over the years. Carolyn also announced that Heather and Jenny would be taking over for future years.

Andrew Wheeler, the Minister from St Saviour's Church in Guildford, came down to bless the boxes and send them off on a safe journey, praying that each box will reach the right child who will enjoy their box and feel the love that has been sent with them.

Everyone posed for the final picture with the full container. It is always a happy and emotional stage of the process, knowing all the work done is finally complete and the next time the shoebox is opened a young, happy and smiling face will be looking into it with wonder and amazement and all the gifts it contains, some not believing that all those gifts are just for them. "What all for me, all of them?" one child asked when opening their box.



Ted finally found out who he was today, well sort of! His name was revealed as William. We asked "The Bear Garden" to pick three names - they chose William Lilly Rubin - so whilst he is pleased he has a name, he is still left somewhat confused and a little surprised, Lilly! He may not mention that in company.

The lucky winner of Ted's sorry William ****y Rubin's name was Ann Cowan. Here she is with the newly named William, a princely name!

That is not his last job, it is by no means over, in fact his most important job is yet to come. Ted is destined to go to Kyrgyzstan with Jenny where he will have to find a child who is in need of something to love. A huge task indeed how will he choose?

Fire...fire!

 Yesterday was an exciting day with the container coming to take lots of boxes off to Kyrgyzstan and Ted being named. This will be reported in the next blog.


Meanwhile......if you recall Monday when Wendy and Barbara were seen putting out a fire, what we didn't know was that there is a fire chief too, we'll be safe in the warehouse no matter what!

I hope you have enjoyed the blog so far, we're not finished yet though!!!  Through the weeks we've tried to show you a variety of crafts, activities, fun and people, including visitors. Some jobs however, can get over looked as the people who do them are not around all the time.

Two such people are our Finance helpers Colin and Sue Harris. Colin and Sue come in towards the end of each day and collect all the donations. They then spend each evening dealing with the cash, cheques and online donations. We have found donations in boxes given in pennies so it is some task.

This job also means dealing with the associated paperwork, going to the bank each day and paying it all in. It is a time consuming job and we really appreciate them both, even if they are not the most popular people with the bank..... all those coins!

More beautifully dressed Barbie Dolls came in this week. They start with no clothes and hair in a mess but they leave perfect with two sets of clothes. Not forgetting the boys action men too kitted out with their trendy clothes.... yes two sets of course.

A THANK YOU NOTE

Jenny has just received the following email following the visit of a Primary School yesterday to the warehouse. It's great to see other people "catching the bug"!


Hi Jenny,

I just wanted to personally thank you for making the children and the adults feel so welcome yesterday at the warehouse. The kids raved about the visit the whole way home and even one of the parents sent a thank you email into the school this morning as her daughter was so impressed with the visit it was all she talked about when she got home from school yesterday.

I am truly inspired by what you do and the effort it takes to run Operation Christmas Child. I would very much like to keep in touch and I am really looking forward to hearing about your trip in March. I walked away with lots of ideas of how we can promote the shoe boxes next year within the school and I am making it my personal mission to get over 100 boxes! 

I would also like you to keep me in mind for when the warehouse opens next year as I would love to take some time off work and volunteer to help out and help work through the mountain of shoe boxes. I can even do some pick ups local to the area.

Thanks
Tracey

Warehouse Flooded.....by Shoeboxes

Today in the warehouse shoeboxes continued to come in from the whole GU area. Thankfully we were once again supported by all our wonderful volunteers, who work very hard to check the boxes that just seem to keep coming in. Always time for a photo opportunity too of course, here is the GU area "workers' wave".

It's a fantastic atmosphere in the warehouse, people from many walks of life working together for one cause and really enjoying what they do.



It brings joy to us all to see just some of the special things that people have put into boxes. Our volunteers have to check boxes to ensure that they are fair for each child and that they conform to customs' and country regulations.

 Firstly there are the boxes themselves, some beautifully hand-decorated. Here are some wrapped in plain paper but look at all those stickers! They do the job of transforming the boxes into ones that no child could resist.






Some with letters, notes or drawings in them. Some children even want to send photos of themselves.  Some want to tell the child who will receive the box a bit about their life, school and family here in England.
This letter says "Deire frened I have gave this to you because I want you to be my frened I hope you like it I am 8 yeres oled love Sacha". 







Some want to draw a picture. Some even tell them what they look like and to be certain to get the message through draw a picture of themself. This one says:
"Dear Friend I hope you like the box of gifts, I really enjoyed choosing them. I am 9. I have brown hair and blue eyes. I have lots of freckles. I love climbing trees and playing with my friends. Happy christmas! Love Bethany".

On the back of Bethany's letter she has drawn a picture of herself...freckles included!

 Others just want to send love and kindness, knowing that they have a friend whom they may never meet but still want to share some joy with.

Yesterday we heard about the new Ted who will have a Russian name. Let's introduce him. Here is Margaret (holding Ted) and Yvonne. Yvonne came to the warehouse for the first time this year but promises to come back.







Also promising to come back next year are Sharon, Charmaine, Marj and Kim, all from Lakeside Primary School. They have been every Monday and this week brought with them 38 boxes. They want the the whole school involved in making shoeboxes next year, well done and thanks to them all.












After a flurry of visitors yesterday we had a relatively quiet day by having only one group in. This was Haslemere Preparatory School. They also brought in boxes and we gave them a tour, showing them what happens to their boxes and where they go.







As usual they were keen to help and whilst they were a little young to check boxes, they were still very keen to unload their mini bus, look inside the boxes and carry the checked boxes over to Gerard and his team for packing.



Another good job done.

Monday 26th and we have topped 10,000 shoeboxes

Well done everyone, that includes the volunteers who turn up during the day, the drivers, those who donate shoeboxes and those who make crafts and collect different items throughout the year. After a record Friday we had another brilliant day of boxes coming into the warehouse.

It has made a huge difference to our numbers having Ellie and Steve back doing their rounds. In the last few days they have been collecting approximately 500 boxes a day. If you ever need to know how to pack a car or anything else for that matter Steve is "the man to ask".

It takes all sorts of different jobs to ensure the warehouse runs smoothly, as you can see tea and coffee is vital to keep the troops going.

Look at what someone has done in their haste to have a cup of tea? Put their glasses down and into a shoebox. They are not on their way to Kyrgyzstan, we rescued them!

Anyway back to tea, here is Wendy and Barbara, who look like they are putting out a fire, in fact they are ensuring we all get our tea and coffee and that the cups are washed up afterwards.

No need to dial 999.

Ted had an outing with Maureen last week when he went to Ash Grange Primary and Children's Centre and managed to acquire a tie How smart is he? He also loved to pose with all the pupils there. What a star he is turning out to be.










In addition all the 100 names for Ted have gone, that is fantastic and it means £100 donated towards the transportation of the shoeboxes. With a week still to go, another Ted, kindly donated by the people of Chiddingfold, appeared just at the right time. So we thought we could run another name game with Russian names, so please have a go see if we can raise another £50.

Same rules apply, you don't get the teddy but you do get to have picked the name of the teddy that goes to Kyrgyzstan. Now Jenny has to carry two, we are sure she can manage.


Lots of visitors in today...... firstly from Hatch Ride School in Crowthorne who were in this morning, they all loved looking around, meeting people and seeing how the warehouse operates. We got them working too! They unloaded two vehicles and checked lots of boxes too. I think we worked them hard as they ate all the cake and biscuits we put out from them! Brilliant job done and thanks for all the boxes. Hatch Ride School did more boxes this year than last ..... nearly 100!!!

Then, later on this afternoon, we had a group from St Hilary's School in Godalming. Not only did they bring in their boxes (over 100) they unloaded them and had made some awesome crafts too. Then of course, after a tour of the work areas, we got them to work after which they had juice and snacks. However, helping with the shoeboxes did not seem a very hard task, in fact we had to almost drag them away. It was great to see them and as usual, as with all our guests, they left happy, fulfilled and inspired to go and do more shoeboxes in the coming years.

Thirdly, we had The Farnham Assist Knit and Natter group, again they absolutely loved their visit as much as  they had in previous years. Like everyone else who comes to the warehouse, you always want to come back and never get fed up of seeing all the brightly filled boxes, bursting with love and joy all bound for children in critical need. Who couldn't love that?

Another Saturday at the warehouse with over 60 volunteers

Saturday 24 November
Our second Saturday at the warehouse saw our volunteer numbers increase considerably from last Saturday, helped by visits from three different groups. A group came from Harvest Church in Alton, their first time at the warehouse. Merrow Scouts helped in the morning, they our regular annual visitors. Then in the afternoon we had a group from Sheerwater Scouts.

Although we had no deliveries planned for today, we had lots of boxes to check from the record beating number of boxes collected on Friday. Also there are always people dropping by with boxes as well as volunteers arriving with some. So altogether we received 253 boxes in.
So busy were our volunteers that the tables of checked boxes were creaking and Danny had to quickly draft in extra helpers to pack the cartons.

The number of shoeboxes decrease as the number of cartons increase

 At lunch time Maureen told us about her trip to Kyrgyzstan to help deliver boxes, helping us all to understand the impact of the work we do.

A Record Day

Yes a record day. Friday our second week at the warehouse and what a busy one it was too. We broke our record of the number of boxes received in one day. Can you believe it? 2046 shoeboxes collected in one day, this is nearly one quarter of all the boxes we have received so far this year. We now have 8500 boxes packed with love and joy, all bound for children who will, for what might be the first time in their lives, receive a gift and know what it feels like to know that someone cared enough to do something for them.
Here are a few of our drivers with today's boxes, it is hard to capture them all at one time, naturally they are out and about, then unloading and packing boxes...... great job all of you, thank you so much. It's not easy to pack a van either!!

In fact it has been a busy week. Yesterday we had over 70 volunteers in one day, another record.

And another record ...... we encounter over 200 volunteers over the course of the three weeks, many of whom work for OCC throughout the year too. What is so special is that age does not matter. Remember Vera? I am sure Vera won't mind me saying she is our oldest volunteer, a very valued one, as you all are.

And then in true OCC style, we had our youngest volunteer. Poppy aged 11 months, with mum Cat. Poppy has just been christened and had some savings she wanted to share. So out of those savings she made a shoebox and insisted (thanks mum) in bringing it along herself. We had to be careful as Poppy, being so small and cute, could have ended up in a shoebox herself!! A lovely gift but no way do we want to lose her.
She made sure that all the G.I.F.T.S. items were there, just a toothbrush needed so she popped it in.

Then carried it herself to be checked.









Julia, who has been a volunteer for some time, was on hand to do just that and let Poppy know that her box was perfect and that it would be sent to another child who may never meet her but would know she was loved .

 In record time too...all the names for Ted have gone...we still do not know the name which has been picked by The Bear Garden in Guildford (but they do know) Andrew picked the name beforehand, captured here in his wonderful shop.

That will be revealed next week. But magically another bear appeared so maybe we can do another mini competition next week with just Russian names

STOP PRESS ..... despite all the fantastic fillers, can you believe it? we are almost out of cuddly toys. So please if you have any stored in your loft or spare room NOW is the time to bring them in. If you have already done so, we are guessing you have lots of contacts, if that is the case can you please see if they have any more. We love every child to get something to love, after all we all do love something to love and most of us do have that....don't we?

Another plea.....at 10am this Wednesday 28 November, a container is coming to take our shoeboxes off to Kyrgyzstan. We need lots of strong and healthy helpers to help with lifting and carrying cartons. If that is you, put the date in your diary. Or if you know anyone who could help, spread the word......

More visits today.

IMPORTANT: Don’t throw away your old video cases. If you have progressed in this technical world to DVD’s, watching films on your iPad, or even streaming films, you may have a cupboard full of videos you no longer want. Well here is a way to put them into good use…… OK the film can go, but the case, once stripped of the paper film insert can be transformed into a pencil case, a craft set or a puzzle or game. Slip a picture in the sleeve, so don’t throw those Christmas cards away either, and bingo, perfect gift and lasting to put into a shoebox. Great for a boy or girl. Look at what people have made.

There are craft sets, puzzles and they amazingly (with the help of our team)  pencil cases!!! Wonderful.

But we get through a few pencil sharpeners though!!!










We had a group of very helpful and enthusiastic children from Mychett Primary School who came personally to deliver their boxes. What a brilliant job they did too. Thank you Amy for doing the counting. Afterwards they helped to check shoeboxes that had come in earlier. Mychett's  pupils knew exactly what should and should not go in the shoeboxes, they quoted me the G.I.F.T.S. before I could even ask them.

So many boxes there was a chain of pupils

Here they are ensuring boxes are "Fair boxes", correctly labelled and placed in the packing area.

Well done everyone.

Today, Thursday, we had a group of people from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). It was their Orange Day where they help and work with a charity. We are very happy and extremely fortunate that they have chosen us, Operation Christmas Child.

That’s the thing with shoeboxes - they are very contagious and, once bitten, we hope you will be back again.

GSK also donate some of the most important items… toothbrushes and toothpaste. We are indebted to them. "Thank you so much from OCC and every child who receives a box filled with love".