Sandy Creek, NY -- The 20 children at Providence Christian School in the town of Sandy Creek busily packed the shoe boxes full of all sorts of things kids would like.
“I’m giving a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, a stuffed animal, pencils, notepads, socks and hair bands,” said third-grader Sarah VanDyke, 9, of Pulaski. “It’s for a girl. It’s her Christmas present because she doesn’t have anything.”
Sarah and the rest of the pupils are participating in Operation Christmas Child, a program that began in 1993 as a ministry of the international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse, headed by Dr. Billy Graham’s son, Franklin Graham.
Through Operation Christmas Child, adults and children across the United States pack shoe boxes with items for children in other countries throughout Africa, the Middle East, Europe, South America, Central America and the Far East.
Patty Jennings, of Mannsville, Jefferson County, the local Operation Christmas Child coordinator, said this is the third year Providence Christian School has been involved with the program.
Providence Christian School is a grade kindergarten through sixth-grade school with 20 pupils from different parts of Oswego County. The school operates in Calvary Baptist Church on U.S. Route 11. It was chartered in 2006 by the state Board of Regents in 2006.
“The children fill the shoe boxes with simple things, like hygiene items, school supplies, hard candy, small toys,” she said. “Then we pack them up and send them to the kids.”
The boxes go to needy children in more than 130 countries around the world, including children living in orphanages.
Before the boxes are filled, the Providence school pupils learned about the program and the needy children who will receive their gifts.
“The kids want to do something, so we show them how and they run with it,” Jennings said.
The room where the second-graders and third-graders were preparing their boxes was peppered with large photographs of children receiving boxes in previous years. Jennings pointed to one showing a young boy in Ecuador, holding his shoe box gift and flashing a full toothy-filled smile.
Before the pupils sealed their boxes, they wrote letters to the overseas children about themselves and where they live. They wrote their names, ages and city and state. They colored the state where they live on a map of the United States and then included a photograph of themselves.
“I am sending this to a girl,” said Allie Lenhart, 7, a second-grader. “I’m sending it because they don’t have anything.”
“I have socks, toothbrush, gloves and a doll. It’s for a girl,” said Sara Waggoner, 9, a second-grader. “It’s fun and God wants me to do it.”
Before the Providence Christian School children worked on their boxes, they had an international lunch with their parents and teachers. They tried to learn a bit about foods from other countries by feasting on tacos, Egyptian biscuits, lamb, sopapilla cheesecake, cannolis, perogies and fettuccine Alfredo.
Jennings speaks to churches and groups throughout the New York North Central Area of Operation Christmas Child, which includes Oswego, Oneida, Herkimer, Lewis and Jefferson counties. The area set a new record for giving in 2010 with more than 10,000 boxes packed. Jennings has distributed shoe-box gifts to children in Africa and Central and South America.
After boxes are collected in Central New York, they are packed and transported in larger cartons to a relay point in Boonville, where the cartons are loaded onto a tractor-trailer bound for the processing center in North Carolina.
Countries that receive
Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes
Abkhazia, Lithuania, Albania, Macedonia, Angola, Madagascar, Argentina, Malawi, Bahamas, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Mali, Belarus, Mauritius, Belize, Mexico, Benin, Moldova, Bolivia, Mongolia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Botswana, Mozambique, Brazil, Namibia, Bulgaria, Nepal, Burkina Faso, Nicaragua, Burundi, Niger, Cambodia, Panama, Cameroon, Papau New Guinea, Central African Republic, Paraguay, Chad, Peru, Chile, Philippines, China, Poland, Colombia, Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Romania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Ecuador, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Serbia, Estonia, Seychelles, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Fiji, Slovakia, Gabon, Solomon Islands, Georgia, South Africa, Ghana, Sri Lanka, Guinea, St. Kitts, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan (South), Guyana, Suriname, Haiti, Swaziland, Honduras, Tanzania, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Togo, Iraq, Trinidad, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Jordan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uruguay, Kenya, Vanuatu, Kosovo, Venezuela, Latvia, Vietnam, Lebanon, Zambia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Liberia
For more information
Go to this website for Samaritan's Purse to learn more about the shoebox program.
Shoe box drop-offs
The shoe box collection week for Operation Christmas Child is Nov. 14 through Nov. 21.
Oswego County has three drop-off points for the boxes:
Vorea Community Church, 12 Waggoner Road, Richland, 2 to 4 p.m. Monday; 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday; 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 2 p.m. Nov. 20; 8 to 10 a.m., Nov. 21.
Lamson Road Community Church, 2259 Lamson Road, Lysander, 9 to 11 a.m. Monday and Wednesday; 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday; 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday; 6 to 8 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m. to noon Saturday; and noon to 3 p.m. Nov. 20.
Southwest Oswego United Methodist Church, 7721 state Route 104, Oswego, 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; noon to 3 p.m. Wednesday and Friday; 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Nov. 20.
Contact Debra J. Groom at email@example.com, 470-3254 or 251-5586