This afternoon, a senior living community held an Operation Christmas Child shoebox packing party! We helped set-up and host the party just like the parties we attended last month. There was Christmas music, a mini Christmas tree decorated with OCC ornaments, our Shoebox Bingo and plenty of great items to put in shoeboxes. The residents had already folded 50 red-and-green G.O. boxes, signed Christmas cards and even had made items to go in the shoeboxes like fabric pouches for hygiene items and felt pouches for school supplies!
Kicking off the party with three games of Shoebox Bingo, the residents who got a bingo chose an item as a prize to be the first item put into their shoebox!
Next up, time to begin filling shoeboxes! After receiving some packing tips from their activities director, the residents lined up and made their way around the tables, filling their shoebox with the items on the tables. School supplies, soap and washcloths, socks, underwear, small toys, necklaces and many more items were available! All of the shoeboxes packed at the party were for girls aged 10-14 years. We added a label and rubber band to each shoebox as it came down the line and started stacking up the finished shoeboxes.
By making sure that each shoebox contained one of each essential item (soap, washcloth, school supplies, etc) they were able to fill 61 shoeboxes which beat their total last year of 50! We’d like to give a special shout-out to 9-year old Emery, the granddaughter of one of the residents – We’re so glad you came to the party! Thanks so much for your help packing all of those shoeboxes into cartons with us! We showed Emery how to fit 23 shoeboxes into a carton, and by the time we got to cartons #2 and #3, she was doing it all by herself! Way to go, girl. Last of all, we took a photo of the ladies who came to the party with all 61 shoeboxes and our Shoebox Banner!
