Narelle Worboys: Mount Shoebox

635 SHOEBOXES!!!!!

Dannevirke processed 80 last year, so this was a huge leap in logistics and effort!

The 634 breaks up into

200 from Napier/Hastings,
180 from Waipawa/Waipukurau, and
255 from Dannevirke/Takapau/Pahiatua.

Get a load of the population/shoebox ratio!!! I understand Palmerston North have only managed 1000. Hmmmmm.

Sarah's bedroom had 123 boxes stacked against the walls, 5 high for ease of counting. The large boxes in the hallway are fillers being sent to the Auckland packing house to top up low-tide boxes or replace forbidden goods (i.e. soft sweets, sharp or breakable items, liquids, etc). The biggest box is full of kiddie shoes, donated by a lady who read something about the shoebox mission in the newspaper and just went shopping! She paid about $4 a pair.

There were 311 shoeboxes in our garage over the weekend. The blue tarpaulin was required to keep the boxes dry. The storm was so bad that the rain was blasting under the garage doors and forming pools a good metre in. Mum and I were frequently trotting down the hall to check on all the "babies".

Praise the Lord Mum didn't have to make two trips up to the Bay during that storm (she'd already driven me to Wellington that week). Gale warnings on Sunday prevented her going anywhere - which we were both very relieved about - and on Monday a member of the Lions Club offered to take his ute up for the remaining 200 boxes. It's his vehicle you see in the photograph backed into the garage beside the truck from Upper Hutt.

The packers are Marcel and Andy. Marcel and his wife Gloria are the Operation Christmas Child coordinators for the lower North Island. There's a container waiting at the warehouse in Upper Hutt with a capacity for 10,000 or 11,000 shoeboxes. Last year the region managed 4000. When Marcel saw what we had waiting for him, he got really excited and began to think they might be able to fill that container after all. J It will be shipped to Auckland by rail for the packing frenzy that will take place this weekend (every box has to be checked), and then for destinations Pacific and Island!

Dad is very disappointed that his inner ear indisposition (vertigo;seasickness) won't allow him to help in Auckland. However, he's got his head off the pillow and is managing a few simple tasks like emptying his suitcase from last week's trip to Christchurch, stoking the fire, and even getting some banking done, so hopefully he'll be disembarking the "ship" altogether before much longer. It has to be a miracle that Mum and I coped with the program without him.

Phew. I'm exhausted all over again just telling about it. It was an exciting weekend, despite the physical challenges, and it's been a rewarding 4 months of effort. I've started on next year's fillers already...or perhaps I should say I haven't got over the crochet urge yet so the fillers are still trotting off the needle. Mainly pretty headbands (of which I made 35 in the past month), also some dolly blankets (did 7 of those, I think).

This was our bathroom, before the truck arrived...

…and after the truck left.

Bye-bye boxes!

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THANKING YOU!

On behalf of Operation Christmas Child, regional coordinators David and Narelle Worboys express their thanks to the caring people of Napier, Hastings, Havelock North, Waipawa, Waipukurau, Onga Onga, Takapau, Dannevirke, and Pahiatua who gave their generous support to the ‘shoebox mission’. Last year we processed 80 shoeboxes from the Tararua region. That number was tripled this year, and with all the communities working together, totalled a fantastic 635 shoeboxes! That’s 635 destitute children in Fiji and the Solomon Islands who will have their lives transformed this Christmas by a shoebox full of toys, personal care items, school supplies, and clothing, very likely the first present they will receive in their life. Your gifts of love are now being processed through the Auckland packing house and along with thousands of others from around New Zealand will shortly be on their way to their destinations. To all of you who volunteered your time and finances to make this possible, we say thanks, and well done! Let’s aim for an even greater number next year!

For details on this worldwide project, you can visit www.SamaritansPurse.org, and in New Zealand phone 0800 684 300 or email occnz@maxnet.co.nz.