Day 9 & the Mayor of Guildford visits

Carolyn, Mayoress and Mayor

An early coffee break was required today, as the Mayor and Mayoress of Guildford were due to visit the warehouse at 11am. They arrived promptly and were met by Carolyn Gercke, Area Co-ordinator. The Mayor had brought a "car boot full" of  shoeboxes from the council offices which were eagerly taken into the checking area. Maureen Grew then gave the Mayor and Mayoress a tour of the warehouse operation and explained the important work that the volunteers do. The visit finished with the Mayor addressing all the volunteers, thanking them for their efforts and encouraging them to continue their good work for the remainder of the campaign. The Mayor's visit was captured on film by the Surrey Advertiser's photographer, so we hope to see some coverage of the campaign in their next edition.

Today's volunteers listening to the Mayor

These boxes, plus the others that were collected today from around the area, brought the total received into the warehouse to 9838, whilst the number in cartons stands at 9244. That's 9244 happy children, so far, who will receive a shoebox, and each shoebox is another needy child who realises that someone has thought of them with love.

Roger at work

And someone who has been involved in the packing of a vast number of those shoeboxes is Roger Chandler. Roger has been at the warehouse everyday this campaign and focuses on the cartonning process. He says he gets a wonderful sense of achievement from successfully packing the cartons, ensuring that all the shoeboxes are well packed and won't get damaged in transit. Roger has been involved with OCC for 4 years and although does a significant amount of other charity work, says that the OCC work is definitely the most practical and certainly keeps him fit! Roger's inspiration comes from all the stories that are relayed back from the distribution trips, and he is keen to keep spreading the word of the good work done by OCC. Thanks Roger, happy cartonning!


Following in their colleagues' footsteps, a second group of 8 volunteers from Royal Bank of Scotland arrived today to be trained and help check the shoeboxes. As is often the case, many of them had donated shoeboxes previously but this was the first time they had been to a warehouse.
Overall, the girls were impressed by the generosity of the donors as the majority of the boxes were very well filled. On the other hand, they despaired at how some people had obviously mis-read the leaflet and sent in poorly filled boxes. Well girls, that's why the checker's role is so important! By the end of the day, the majority opinion was that they would definitely come back tomorrow if possible. Unfortunately, RBS may not agree, but hopefully we'll see them next year.

Barbara with some fleece hats

One of the fillers that the volunteers had available today, were these colourful and very warm fleece hats that had been made by the craft group of St Saviour's Church. The group sources the fleece from suppliers nationally to get the best deal and over the year had produced over 500 hats. Wonderful!




Unfortunately, despite donations, we are still low on SOAP, COLOURED PENCILS, BIROS, FLANNELS and FIBRE TIP PENS. Any contacts / donations welcomed!!


So where was Ted today? Well he has really knuckled down to work over the last few days and today was busy sharpening pencils. It's a time consuming job but we feel it's really important to give the children something they can use immediately and the difference between an unsharpened and a sharpened pencil is just another gift of love. Excellent job Ted.

See you tomorrow!!