Shoeboxes 2015

Tags

giving, OCC, operation christmas child, samaritan's purse

I keep forgetting to post about our completed shoeboxes for OCC!  The kids had a lot of fun filling the boxes and only had a few comments about wanting to keep the items for themselves.  I thought that was a success.

I spread out all the items and let the children choose what to put in.  Some items I had one for each, some I had several for each, and other items I only had one or two.  They did a good job of knowing when they could take more than one (pencils) and when to take one (clipboards.)

I gave them each a box to fill so we were able to fill four boxes.  I had never done a box before so I thought starting with four was a little adventurous, but we managed to get them all full!

Really blurry, but I don’t have permission to post pictures of the kids I babysit and this is the only one I got with just my son.

I had each of the children draw a picture and write a note.  The bigger kids did a really good job drawing their pictures.  The toddler didn’t really, but it is the thought that counts, right?  The boy I babysit wrote his entire letter by himself.  I think it will mean a lot to the child who gets it.

I don’t really have a good picture of each item but here is a general list of what was in each shoebox.

**Crayons in a nice plastic box, colored pencils, pencils, pencil pouch, pencil sharpener, clipboard, small notebook, coloring book, puzzle, suckers, 4 homemade finger puppets, a bouncy ball, toothbrush with cover, toothpaste, washrag, and small stuffed animal.
**The “wow” items were a purse and small doll for the girl box and a car for the boys.

I didn’t really keep track of what I spent on these boxes.  I bought the items over the course of about four months.  I think I ended up spending close to $25 a box for the items.  If you bargain shop you could probably pack a box for much less, but I wasn’t able to do much of that this year.

There is a $7 suggested donation to help with the shipping cost of these boxes.  If you donate online you get a tracking label to see what country your boxes go to.

If you have any questions about what packing a shoebox means and how to get involved I encourage you to visit Samaritan’s Purse’s website.

There are also many resources on Facebook and on their Pinterest board to help give you ideas and some good deals!