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......