Its That Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Its SHOEBOX time!  We've collected goodies all year long.  We've planned.  We crammed, stuffed our boxes full ~ well actually, crammed is a better word!  And we still got to the days to pack and ended up with some necessities not purchased ~ specifically, toothbrushes and soap.

All our boxes or any boxes that we help with have soap/washcloth (Ivory soap, it floats!), toothbrush and toothpaste, spiral notebook/pencils/a sharpener, crayons, comb. At Dollar Tree, we found some awesome things ~ t shirts, packs of socks (marked down to .25), lg. packs of combs, and family packs of toothbrushes.  We found full size tubes of toothpaste at Walmart for .88 each.  We found crayon packs for .10-.30 at back to school sales.  We took full advantage of our freebie coupons from Harbor Freight and ended up with screwdrivers, flashlights, batteries for older boys for FREE!  We collected free cups and tote bags at nascar and added them to our boxes.

Our childrens group at church collected/earned money and packed their shoeboxes all together last Wednesday night.  Amy will be going to work at the relay center for accepting shoeboxes from area churches to pack in the crates to send to Atlanta.  I will be there too, if work permits. 

There are some incredible ideas on Pinterest, including boards from Operation Christmas Child. 

There are many testimonials from adults that received shoeboxes as gifts when they were children and the impact that this gift had on their lives.  Many are now carrying on the tradition with their own children.

A simple shoebox gift has a lasting, lifelong impact on a child ~ who could be receiving their first gift EVER. 

Here are some links for more information & inspiration ~

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/ 

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/pack-a-shoe-box/


http://www.pinterest.com/missmomof7/operation-christmas-child/ (my pinterest board for ideas)

http://www.pinterest.com/occshoeboxes/