2011 Launch Night

St Saviour's Church, 19th September, 8pm

Carolyn Gercke, area co-ordinator, officially kicked off the campaign and talked about the success of the 2010 campaign and our total of over 15,000 shoeboxes.
Jane Turner and Maureen Grew then talked about their experiences of two different Shoebox distribution trips, Jane to Belarus and Maureen to Kyrgyzstan. Both described the unimaginably poor conditions that they found the children in but equally how overwhelmed they were by the generosity and hospitality of the people they met. Their talks were as moving as these stories always are and were a good reminder as to why the campaign is so important.

Pictures from Maureen's trip to Kyrgyzstan

As well as the talks, there were several displays in the church. Covered shoeboxes were being sold for those of us who love to do the boxes but get in a mess when covering them and Christmas cards were for sale using the pictures from various distribution trips.

There were knitting patterns aplenty with free wool for anyone wanting to try out a hat, scarf or hand puppet. Filled shoeboxes were also displayed giving ideas for gifts for the different age ranges.

And of course it was a chance to meet up with friends who you just hadn't seen since this time last year and catch up with all the collecting that had been going on all year.

There was just one question remaining......... Where is the warehouse this year????

As yet that hadn't been confirmed, so as ever ... watch this space.