by Lucie Roy
The Operation Christmas Child Packing Shoeboxes event took place at the Father’s House Church on Saturday with participants packing a shoebox at a cost of $35 per box to cover contents and shipping and handling.
Participants could browse the rows of tables that had items for children and pack the box as they saw fit. They also had volunteers that could help pack or provide suggestions for the age groups of the child that would receive the box.
Operation Christmas Child -St. Albert Area Coordinator Debbie Froese has been a volunteer with Samaritan’s Purse for 27 years and has made four distribution trips.
This year it was a three-generational volunteer effort with Froese, her daughter Shera Soper and grand daughter Ella Soper.
Froese estimated this year they will have from 600-700 boxes which includes the box pick-ups at Higher Grounds and Sobeys.
Froese said she collects items year round for the project and had a wide selection of clothing and toys for Boys and Girls from ages 2-4, 5-9 and 10-14 years.
From here the boxes make their way by HIS Trucking to the distribution depot in Calgary.
Volunteers Jackie Coglon and Shera Soper were busy putting boxes together when the doors opened and E.J. Masirag and Shirley Masirag were busy cutting the labels to affix to the boxes.
Arriving early, AJ Brown and Peggy Martin was already working on filling boxes with the selection of goodies.
