Shoe Boxes Filled With Christmas Joy For African Children
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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Tatiana Woods arrived from Houston on a cold Friday night in December. Now, she's packing shoe boxes at a cavernous warehouse near the DFW airport.
These are not just ordinary shoe boxes. They are precious to those who have very little. "We have transformers figures, deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste, some school supplies," Woods points out.
These shoe boxes are part of 'Operation Christmas Child'. They are going to the African Country of Togo for children in orphanages and shelters to be opened on Christmas Eve.
A cheer rises in the warehouse. A big packing box has been filled by one of the 20 packing stations. They are celebrating.
Each station has 12 to 13 volunteers. One person opens the boxes mailed in from churches across the country, checks for unwanted items, and then passes to the next person to perform the next task in the assembly line. Finally it is packed and sent off.
These little boxes spread more than just joy and cheer to the children in orphanages. They are beacons of hope. A hope to continue on.
Woods knows that feeling. 12 years ago- she was an orphan in Russia. "The government took me away when I was 5," she says. "We grew up in an orphanage and shared a toothbrush with 20 other people. I shared a room with 20 girls and took a shower once a month," she recalls.
She's now a spokesperson for Operation Christmas Child- A Samaritan's purse initiative.
When she was 8, she was a recipient of one such shoe box. "When we received those boxes, I remember tearing into it," she says. "I don't think a piece of my box was left over." Her favorite thing: A bright slinky. "That was the brightest thing I had ever seen in my life," she remembers.
Each volunteer packs his or her on personal box as well. Karen Hanson makes time for this initiative during the holidays. "I always pack a stuffed toy in my box." She and her family have packed more than 20 boxes.
Samaritan's Purse' Regional director Mark Harrison says they've packed more than 550,000 boxes at this facility alone. There are 9 such facilities in the country.
Woods moved to America with her adoptive family. She never forgot the feeling of getting one of these boxes. Now she's giving back, "I could be the girl who could bring life to another girl and that has been the part for me," she says.
For more information about these boxes visit their website.
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