Day 14 - 15,000 and rising!

Another day, another wonderful eclectic mix of shoeboxes, donations, visitors and volunteers. There were beautifully decorated boxes, unusual filler items, imaginative shoebox contents and much much more

- oh and we even hit the 15,000 shoeboxes received mark !!

Joining in as volunteers today were a group from GSK, Weybridge, many of whom are involved in the development and testing of new toothpastes. And they didn't come empty handed! They brought with them several boxes of toothpaste and toothbrushes that they had been carefully putting to one side throughout the year. The group, which included, Carol, Louisa, Louisa, Michelle, Emma, Pavan and Siobhan all came as part of GSK's charity day initiative. Carol and Louisa have been coming for about the last 5 years and always look forward to their shoebox day. For the others, it was their first but maybe not their last experience!   They all agreed that it is a great reality check at this time of year to focus on children who are much less fortunate than those from this country, and by doing something so simple it can mean so much. Thanks for all your help girls and we look forward to seeing you all next year! 


Another group on a return visit were the visitors from Cedar Court Care Home, Cranleigh. (Now dedicated blog readers may even spot a couple of faces from an earlier posting of the group's end of year display). Today, Tony, Joyce, Elizabeth and Edna came with Michael, Lisa, Josie and Chris to see this year's warehouse in operation. After a brief tour, our volunteers Wendy and Joan showed the group what is involved in checking a shoebox and the group were able to see several boxes being sealed up, next to be opened by the children overseas. It was great for the Cedar Court knitters to see where their items go and feel that they are a valuable part of the process.


Our final visitors of the day came from Cranleigh School. The girls came to drop off their boxes and explore the warehouse operation. We hope they enjoyed their tour and go back to spread the word amongst their friends and families.





We hear many stories from the distribution teams about how important these shoeboxes are in the lives of the children but it's even more amazing when you hear a story first-hand from someone who actually received a shoebox as a child. At St Mary of Bethany Church last Sunday, the congregation had gathered for their shoebox service and they heard from Alex, a young Romanian adult tell of how he had received a shoebox as a teenager. Alex talked about how he had felt at being cared for by strangers from another country and how, when he had decided to work abroad had immediately decided to come to England as it had been the country that had sent him the gift of love 10 years previously. Many at the service were moved by his story and how through the power of God, one shoebox had transformed the life of a child.

Size can matter when you are trying to be fair!

Whilst so many of the shoeboxes are beautifully wrapped and filled, there are occasionally a few boxes that do not meet our criteria of being a fair box. That is, it would not be fair to give the box to a child as it is deficient in one way or another.  We want every child to feel loved when they receive the box and not to feel that they have received something sub-standard. This might just be that it has not been covered, or that the box is very small. Sometimes there is only one gift inside or there is only one type of gift. All these shoeboxes are examples of "problem boxes" or boxes that need special attention. To help us process these efficiently, the boxes are removed from the usual checking process and  Ian and Diane focus on sending them out as fair as any other box. They also specialise in finding a way of including that large but ideally suited item, of fitting everything else around it. Hopefully with their help, every box that leaves our warehouse is truly a fair box.

So another busy day with lots of visitors, and Ted understandably took time out from his duties to do some entertaining, or was it the jammie dodgers he'd spotted??

See you tomorrow!