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Feature Article April 29

Feature Article November 10, 2004

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Christmas coming early at St. James Catholic School

by Jeff Green

Students at St. James School in Sharbot Lake may not be celebrating Christmas just yet, but they were hard at work last week ensuring that some children overseas will have something to celebrate come the end of December. Operation Christmas Child, a program of the Samaritans Purse International Relief Agency, will be receiving 25 gift boxes that were filled with gifts purchased by the St. James Parents Council, and decorated by each of the students at the school.

We dont know where the gift boxes will be going, so we avoid putting in things like mitts, but we like to put a toy in, a toothbrush, some candy, and other treats, said Parent Council co-President Anne Howes.

This is the fourth year that St. James has been participating in the project and the first year that all students, from junior kindergarten to grade eight, have participated.

Along with the gifts, each student wrote a letter and put it in the box, and then decorated the box as well. A photo of all the students and staff at the school was included as well.

Last Friday all of the finished boxes were sent off to collection centres to be shipped to children around the world. The cost of the project was about $325 to the Parents Council, and some parents donated and $5 towards the shipping costs. The students enjoyed packing the boxes and decorating them as much as they would have if they were receiving gifts themselves.

The little boxes that grew

Filling shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child has become a favourite project for families, churches, schools, and community groups in our area and around the world. On Sunday, many area churches were filled with the boxes, which were sent off with prayers.

The program began in 1990, when a Welsh couple, Dave and Jill Cooke, after watching a broadcast on the Bosnian war, resolved to do what they could to help the children affected by the war. They filled a convoy of nine trucks with medical supplies, food, clothing and Christmas gifts for children, and headed into Romania, which had recently been devastated by war. This was the beginning of the worlds largest childrens Christmas program.

In 1992, Samaritans Purse adopted Operation Christmas Child, and the first year, 28,000 shoeboxes were collected. Last year, 6.6 million shoeboxes were collected worldwide (732,000 of them in Canada), and distributed to children in desperate situations in over 90 countries.

With the participation of the Government of Canada