Good morning from California! (I love saying that!) Right now I’m sitting in my hotel room eating a dark chocolate almond turtle (yes, before breakfast) and thinking about shoeboxes. My home church has done shoeboxes for years. I remember my mom and one other pastor going to the store with several grocery carts and filling them to overflowing with supplies. They’d set up an assembly line and lead the kids of our church in packing hundreds of boxes.
The first time I ever did my very own box was last year. I loved watching Lydia pick out toys, color a picture and pray over her box. What I never ever thought of was what happened to my box AFTER it left my hands. I even told Lydia this year, “Just think! The next hands that touches this box will be a little girl getting it for Christmas!”
I could not have been more wrong!
After one day at the processing center I saw just how many hands touch that one box. When we arrived at the warehouse-turned-processing-center (these are usually temporary locations each year) we saw a line of volunteers waiting to sign in and put on their name tags. Everyone was as happy as if they were working in Santa’s very own workshop. They were taking pictures, laughing and smiling. Registration to volunteer in the processing center opens in August and fills up almost immediately!
We were ushered into a training room with about 20 other people. They do this training in shifts so we can really see what’s going on. They set up a mock processing table, gave volunteers signs around their necks with their “titles” and then we followed a box through a process. (I just love a good training!)
Ready to follow the box?
the fabulous Tricia from 24/7moms!
First, there’s a pre-sorter who opens up the box, takes out the $7 donation and drops it in a giant locked trunk.
the blogger formerly known as Mommy Snacks: Andrea from Savings Lifestyle
Next, there are the sorters (or what I like to call the inappropriate-item-taker-outers). These people look at every item and make sure there are no breakable items, liquid, food or other strange and inappropriate items. Our most favorite yesterday? A can of sardines. *shudder*
the unstoppable Sarah from Real Life Blog and the delightful Christine from Dates To Diapers
The box then goes to the taper. They tape the box up making sure not to cover the Boy/Girl label and send it on to…
the fantastic Jessica from Muthering Heights and another volunteer attempting to pack a box!
The Packer! This person puts the box in one of six boxes based on age and gender. It doesn’t sound like a hard job, but when you have to get at least 14 shoeboxes to fit happily in one giant box while every box is a different size, it’s like a puzzle! Or geometry or something.
This was my job!!
The very last person is the scanner–they scan all the boxes and cartons that have been labeled with a barcode from the EZ Give. If a person packs a box and donates their $7 online, they print out a barcode to attach to their box so they can follow their box to the child. Isn’t that cool?
Then there are the guys who pack up the cartons and send it down the rolling belt to the guys who pack them into trailers that send them to shipping companies that ship them to the churches that give them to the kids. *whew*
So, total number of hands that touch a box? Counting the person who originally donated it? At least 8. Eight people for every child! I don’t know why but this floored me. The amazing system they have set up for making sure a little shoebox full of dollar-store-items gets to a needy child is just astounding.
Our little crew of processors were probably the worst and slowest there because we kept stopping to take picutres or tweet or ask a question. And as we looked around I saw so many different kinds of people—ladies in prayer caps, teenagers with ipods in their ears, grandparents with Christmas sweatshirts, big burly guys with long hair and tattoos and moms who left their kids with babysitters to be there. It was amazing to think about the love these people had–to give up a day to process boxes!
The more we processed and the more I saw people working the more I saw the boxes as children. Each box was being processed–but really it was the child that was being loved. When you pack a shoebox, you are joining with a community of people to love and give to a child in need! That child will never know what went into their box—but they will know the love that God has for them because of the small work that others have done!
Pack a shoebox today!
This is so true…it’s amazing how many hands these boxes pass through!
My adult daughter has been packing these boxes for years with the use of one hand and would like to know how the boxes can be tracked, Her husband writes out one check at $7 each for all the boxes.
Love it….love the play by play description of the life of a box….what a blessing it is that you get to spend time at this packaging plant. can’t wait to hear more!
Tears in my eyes. SO awesome! Thanks for sharing the step by step!
Thanks for sharing this story. I packed 10 boxes for our church’s collection and loved doing it. I also love hearing what happens afterwards! This is definitely a project I will take part in for years to come, and look forward to including my daughter in as she grows older.
Thank you for posting this! I packed my first boxes this year for OCC. I did one with my little girl and four with the preschoolers I teach. We had such a great time and the kids are so curious about what has happened to the gifts! I can’t wait to share this with them and let them know what’s going on with their boxes before they go to the little boys and girls!
Thanks for posting this! I have always wanted to see what happens after I drop off my box at church! 😀 Looks like a lot of fun!
😀
Emily
Thanks for the post…it’s exciting to see what happens to our boxes before they head out across the globe. My mom and I decided this year that next year we want to work at one of the distribution centers for a day or two.. how fun.
I got to participate at a processing center 6 years ago with a group from college … my photos seem very similar 🙂 We did both the initial sorting one day and the final sorting the next. Thanks for bring back the memories.
That is so unbelievable! I know the last couple of years, I’ve thought to myself “why am I putting the money in this box, that seems like so much work for them to pull out” … but sounds like they have quite the system in place!
so, while looking through your pics, i kept having this sudden “jump” inside me that said, “i see my box! … oh. no. that doesn’t make sense… hey! there’s my box for sure!” 😛
I LOVE doing Operation Christmas Child boxes and blogged several times throughout the year on it. I’d love to know more about how to get involved with them as a (very small) blogger next year so if you can pass my info on or send me a contact person, that would be wonderful!
I’ll email them and let you know, ok?
So interesting! Lucky you for going. I paid online this year so I could track my shoeboxes. Can’t wait to see where they end up.
Awesome! It was such a cool experience!
My adult daughter has been packing shoeboxes for years and would love to know how to track the boxes, she does quite a few boxes but puts all the $7 in one check.
How many hands, she does it with use of only one hand, every bit.
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Thank you for your post, I loved seeing the process of what happens once those boxes leave our hands!