Shropshire gears up to spread Christmas shoebox joy as sorting hubs open
It’s a bit of Christmas joy for children who need it the most - from Shropshire to the world.
Last year more than 7,280 shoeboxes were sent from the county under the Operation Christmas Child campaign – and now this year’s appeal is beginning to gather momentum.
Volunteers for the cause will be training this week ready to start processing the thousands of gifts donated by local schools, churches and work places.
A processing centre has been set up at Telford's Reviive in Trench Road, Trench, with another set up in The Church of the Holy Spirit, in Meadow Farm Drive, Shrewsbury.
Those hubs will collect in the gifts and ensure they are going to less fortunate children elsewhere in the world.
Elaine Udakis, Telford co-ordinator for the project, said for many of the children it was the first gift they have ever been given.
“Last year we processed 4,587 shoeboxes in Telford and a further 2,693 in Shrewsbury,” said Elaine. “All these boxes were then loaded on to a container lorry and made their way to needy boys and girls in Central Asia.
“Thank you so much to everyone who has donated a gift-filled shoebox for a needy child, probably the first gift that child has ever received.
Grateful
“Shoeboxes are packed with dolls, cars, skipping ropes, yoyos, cuddly toys, crayons, pens, pencils, notebooks, hats, scarves, gloves, toiletries – simple things that these children do not have.”
The next few weeks will be the start of a very busy period for the volunteers with the initiative which is run by the international charity Samaritan's Purse.
“We’ve just set up our local processing centre for this years’ Operation Christmas Child appeal for 2018,” Elaine added.
“We are sharing the processing centre with workers from Reviive and the Wrekin Housing Trust and are extremely grateful to the managers, Gus and Kevin, for being able to accommodate us again.
“We have three training sessions going on this week for our volunteers and then open next week. During this time we will be processing the many gift-filled shoeboxes that are kindly donated.”
For more information about Operation Christmas Child visit samaritans-purse.org.uk
