THE organisers of Operation Christmas Child are making a special appeal to the people of Thame and the surrounding villages this year. In 2008, the international charity was responsible for sending over 1.2 million shoeboxes full of Christmas gifts, 16,000 from a warehouse in Abingdon alone, to underprivileged children in other parts of the world.
To cope with the logistics of this massive, voluntary effort it needs to open a second operational centre for this area and plans this to be based in the Thame region.
The charity is looking for an empty warehouse in the area, which it can use from late October to early December. This will be used for the collecting and packing of the shoeboxes ready for despatch to Belarus.
Operation Christmas Child would like to invite organisations, schools, places of work and churches to promote the filling of boxes by their members.
“Many in the Thame area have been contributing in this way for a number of years and we would like to thank them for their tremendous efforts,” said local co-ordinators Janet Hulett and Gill Wagstaff.
As Belarus is a cold country, Operation Christmas Child likes to send over warm hats, scarves and gloves to the children, so if there are any knitters out there, it can supply them with patterns and possibly some wool.
The charity is also looking for donations of suitable items such as good quality small toys, new soft toys, toiletries, educational supplies (such as pens, pencils and paper) and sweets with a sell-by-date to be at least March, 2010.
It is eager to hear from anyone in the Thame area who can assist with any of the above requests. Anyone able to help or who requires further information should contact the charity (Samaritans Purse) on 020 8559 1180 or e-mail Janet at janetshoebox@googlemail.com.
Photo: courtesy of brushycreek.org
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