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Operation Christmas Child benefits from community outreach

Unity residents participate in a international Christmas outreach program
Sherri Solomko
Sherri Solomko

UNITY ‑ A number of residents in Unity contribute to Operation Christmas Child ‑ through a youth or church groups or other organizations.

The initiative invites groups and individuals to fill shoeboxes with items for children in need.

Red Apple, Unity, says for the past 10 years they have set up for people to either purchase items at their store to fill a shoe box, with a discount offered for these purchases (shoe boxes included) and they have offered to be a drop-off point for residents who have already filled shoeboxes. In the three-week period starting just before Halloween, shoppers and contributors have donated dozens of filled boxes for Red Apple staff to deliver to a North Battleford drop-off point. Employee Arlene Wilkie says in 2020, their staff volunteers took in 40 boxes.

Unity Baptist Church has also participated in this program for a number of years.

UBC says the number of shoeboxes filled varies year to year, though past years did see more boxes filled than recently likely for a variety of reasons, and COVID-19 has been a factor the past two years.

UBC makes special mention of parishioner, Krystal Martin, who last year donated dozens and dozens of handmade toques that she knitted over the year, repeating the process this year. Samaritan’s Purse staff distribute the toques amongst shoeboxes when they do inspections and shipping preparations.

Donna Rebel, with help from her husband Blaine, organizes UBC’s shoebox initiative each fall. Beyond that, the number of volunteers is minimal, not counting everyone who fills a shoebox. Congregants were encouraged to place their filled shoeboxes at the front of the church. On the final Sunday, a time of prayer is included in worship service for the Operation Christmas Child, Samaritan’s Purse program.

After this service, the Rebles take the finished product and toques to the regional collection point in North Battleford where it is transported to the place necessary to get them to their destination.

Operation Christmas Child, Samaritan’s Purse initiative was first orchestrated by Franklin Graham. The program has been growing annually and is intended to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world.

Graham answered a call to action when he first received a call in 1993 asking if he would be willing to organize volunteers to help fill shoeboxes with gifts for children in war-torn Bosnia. Every year the shoeboxes are filled with toys, school supplies, socks and hygiene items. More than 9.1 million shoebox gifts were collected in 2020 states the website www.samartinspurse.ca.