One woman’s journeys from Orange to the wider world beyond will hopefully inspire more people from the Central West to donate gift boxes to spread smiles all across the globe.
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Samaritan’s Purse’s ‘Operation Christmas Child’ launched its 2018 Central West appeal on Saturday, and after collecting 1100 shoebox-sized gift boxes in 2017 there’s high hopes of sending 1500 boxes from Orange and the wider region to needy countries in the Pacific.
This year, the boxes – which contain clothes, toys, pens and books, and personal hygiene items – will be heading to Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Cambodia and possibly beyond, with destinations changing due to natural and man-made disasters across the world.
Pam Johnson made the trip to Fiji last year with Samaritan’s Purse to help distribute boxes, arriving after floods inundated parts of the country.
Mrs Johnson, who has also been to Vietnam for Operation Christmas Child, said it was one of the most rewarding experiences of her life.
“It’s just incredible, because these children have never received anything new before so here we are these strangers with this box of goodies and it just brings a smile to your face,” she said.
“The parents are so grateful as well that someone’s taken the time to give something to them and care about them.
“Things like slinkys, we take it for granted, we all know what slinkys do, but the kids were putting it on like a bracelet because they didn’t know what it was.
“So we set up boxes as a staircase and pushed it down the boxes to show them what it does.”
Organiser Robyn Hicks said Orange and the Central West was incredibly supportive of the charity.
“People in Orange and the area have been really generous and it’s really pleasing to see how people get together and make things and meet new people,” she said.
“We’re hoping from Orange and surrounding districts we get 1500 shoe boxes, and that’d be 1500 happy smiles for children which would be really wonderful.”
She said working bees were held on the third Saturday of the month to knit or build toys or clothes or anything to go into the gift boxes.
“560 Cecil Road for the working bees … for making items for the boxes and later in the year we do pack the boxes,” she said.
Head to operationchristmaschild.org.au to get involved.