Residents of Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows donate generously to Samaritan’s Purse shoebox campaign

Gloria Williamson packs shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child all year round.

The annual Samaritan’s Purse campaign, sees volunteers fill shoeboxes with gift items for children. The boxes are are shipped to countries in Africa or South America for those who have little and will likely be receiving nothing for Christmas.

The Whonnock resident already has nine shoeboxes packed and ready to go for next year’s campaign.

It’s thanks to dedicated volunteers like Williamson that a record number of boxes were shipped to children in need in 2021, compared to 2020.

Provincially 53,789 shoeboxes were packed during last year’s campaign, up about 17 per cent from the 2020 campaign that saw 46,066 shoeboxes filled.

In Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows residents packed 5,056 last year, up from 4,094 in 2020.

This is not surprising for Williamson, because of the effects of the ongoing COVID pandemic.

People, she said, only had themselves to think about, because of pandemic mandates, restricting their activities.

This past campaign, Williamson packed about 411 boxes herself in her living room, where she has been packing boxes for the past two years because of the pandemic.

Until 2019, she said, they used to have marathon packing parties at her church – Wildwood Fellowship at 272 Street and 108 Avenue. Volunteers would gather, pick a gender and age range, and pack the donations for that category.

Now she has about five people donating items that they leave on a table at her front porch.

Williamson also donates a portion of each of her paychecks that she receives from her job as a security guard. She takes that money, decides what she needs for the boxes ahead of time, and then heads to the local dollar store.

What makes her so passionate about Operation Christmas Child are the eye-opening trips she took to Senegal and Gambia with the organization.

READ MORE: Once a child in a refugee camp, now a promoter of Operation Christmas Child

In 2016, she went to Senegal to hand out shoeboxes. She was part of a family team of 22 who went to the African country for 22 days.

She saw children there taking refuge under cars.

“If it rained they found somebody’s car and climbed under,” she said.

In Gambia, where she travelled for 10 days in 2018, conditions were similar. The children, she said, have absolutely nothing.

“Whatever they get in a box they are more than thankful for, because they have nothing,” she added.

Williamson first became involved with Operation Christmas Child while teaching a women’s Bible study class in 1995. They were looking for a project to do, and happened upon the shoebox campaign. She has been involved ever since.

For boys Williamson likes to pack small tools like hammers or screwdrivers, in addition to school supplies, t-shirts, toys, and toothbrushes. For girls she packs soccer balls with a pump, running shoes, school supplies, sewing kits, and for the older girls toiletries.

ALSO: Thousands of shoeboxes for children in need donated by Maple Ridge residents

Across Canada, 413,875 shoeboxes were packed in 2021, which was an increase of more than 40,000 from 2020’s total.

According to Samaritan’s Purse Canada, a Christian relief and development organization, Operation Christmas Child has collected and hand-delivered almost 200 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in over 170 countries hurt by war, poverty, natural disaster, disease, and famine, since 1993.

The 2022 national collection week for Operation Christms Child is Nov. 14-20.

For more information go to samaritanspurse.ca/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child.

Williamson accepts donations for her shoeboxes all year long. She also collects bottles.

Anyone wanting to donate to her campaign can email agemtowatkins@yahoo.com.