Day11 - To Kyrgyzstan with love

Today was the day! Just under 8000 lovingly checked shoeboxes from the last 2 weeks, were loaded into the container for their long journey to children waiting unknowingly in Kyrgyzstan. With around 20 strong volunteers to hand the container was loaded incredibly quickly and all the hard work was rewarded when the last box was slid into place.
Here's the story of the morning in photos.

 The cab appears through the double doors and reverses into place.
Many of the volunteers continue checking as the container is ready to be loaded.

Ted checks out the space inside

                    The loading begins

Almost there !

 Everyone gathers as the cartons are blessed.

 Group Photo!

 Jonathan Lord, Woking MP packs the last box

 

No room for Ted -

he's going with the Distribution Team

 

 and they've gone.

From Guildford to Kyrgyzstan with love

For all of todays' photos, click on the link.

https://picasaweb.google.com/103588759400401245450/ContainerDay#

For the rest of today's stories see the next post.

Day4 and 3450 boxes ready to go

If you saw an Enterprise van driving in the GU postcode area today, then it was possibly ours! The vans made 10 collections from different shops, schools, churches and offices in their constant hunt for boxes. So, with all these arrivals, we were well set for a good day of checking.

And everyone was busy checking when Roger Fenton arrived. Roger is Regional Manager for the "south", an area that extends from Cornwall to Kent. He is responsible for the activities of 31 warehouses and will be visiting all of them during the campaign.

Roger chatting to volunteers at the checking tables

 Over lunch, Roger thanked everyone for their efforts, and talked about the value of the gift of a shoebox to an under-priviledged child. Whilst we might be tempted to think of the box as a small collection of items, to the child who receives it, it is truly precious. Many of them will never have received a gift before and never have known what it is like to share their possessions with their family and friends. It is truly humbling what the shoebox can achieve.

Maureen's slide show during lunchtime

Maureen had brought in her slide show of Kyrgyzstan photos and her stories only served to re-inforce these thoughts as we saw pictures of families living in terribly poor conditions.  These families truly deserve our gifts of love.

Vaness and the girls toys

Our volunteer today is Vanessa Wells who has been actively supporting OCC for the last 3 years. She was introduced to the campaign by the Homemakers group (of "soap" fame  - earlier posting not Eastenders!). She has 6 grandsons of her own so particularly enjoys doing girls boxes!  She is an avid knitter, knitting every day, and likes the fact that she can work "behind the scenes" all year round. For her, it is about knowing that she is giving joy to so many children and imagining the delight on the children's faces when they open the boxes.
Thank you Vanessa and keep up the knitting!









And now it's time for a commercial break! Here is Marianne promoting the Christmas Cards that have been designed using photos from 6 of our volunteers' distribution trips.

http://youtu.be/09bej1Wz8sw

If you are interested then please let us know and we can probably arrange postage!

Marianne and Rose with inappropriate fillers.

Back in the warehouse Marianne and Rose are modelling items from a "odd box" that had been donated. The box was a regular cardboard box rather than a shoebox and contained nothing but adult clothes including some underwear. Somebody obviously didn't read the leaflet!

A much better filler is today's filler of the day and follows the theme of teddies in a bag. These gorgeous bears are knitted hand puppets and they each have their own colourful crocheted bag and strap. They are delightful and will give many hours of joy to the children who receive them.

And Ted? Well he heard that it was going to be a busy van day so he was eager to help out. No thanks, Ted we have enough drivers and we need you in the warehouse!

Editors note - the link to this week's photos should now work - apologies for any distress!

https://picasaweb.google.com/103588759400401245450/Week1?authkey=Gv1sRgCJWSyc_Ok-i_jAE#

See you tomorrow!

Spreading the word !

The foyer of Farnham library isn't the first place that you think of, when someone says OCC shoeboxes, but for 2 weeks in October, library goers could see a wonderful display of 2 different shoebox distribution trips located in prime position in the foyer.

Maureen Grew and Marianne Nicholson put together the display using photos from their respective distribution trips. Marianne had visited the Crimea and Maureen, Kyrgyzstan. Farnham library attracts many visitors as it is fully open 6 days a week and has lots of different groups using its facilities. It's an ideal place to spread the word!

All brushed up to support OCC!

Fur was being brushed and paws cleaned at The Bear Garden in Guildford on Friday 28th October as OCC volunteers arrived to receive this year's mascot.  One fortunate bear was going to be donated by The Bear Garden and will accompany the delivery of shoeboxes to Kyrgyzstan. Once there he will be presented to one of the orphanages or children's homes where he'll spend many happy days with children who will no doubt love him.

Andrew Colborne-Baber, owner of The Bear Garden, kindly donated a gorgeously soft brown bear and Anne Milton, Conservative MP for Guildford, was on hand to present the lucky bear to Maureen Grew for OCC.

Maureen, Anne, Teddy and Andrew

The bear will be named by the volunteers at the warehouse and money will be raised to help him with his travel costs to Kyrgzstan!

Both Andrew and Anne were very happy to support OCC. Andrew and his team will also be donating other toys and it may be possible, that despite a very busy schedule, Anne can visit us at the warehouse. We do hope so!

Bears and Friends support OCC