Pack A Shoebox This Holiday Season

Eileen Warthe

The Portage la Prairie Rotary Club welcomed Eileen Warthe as their guest speaker for this week's luncheon.  Warthe, area coordinator for Operation Christmas Child, says the shoebox campaign helps give kids hope all around the world.  Warthe notes there are so many heartwarming stories of children who have received shoeboxes, including one little girl in war-torn Bosnia who was living with hunger and need.  She says this child wanted to give up on going to school and give up on on life itself, adding one day the girl was very late getting to class because her runners were so worn out they no longer offered protection from the rain and cold.  Warthe notes the child was surprised to find her classmates joyful about receiving shoeboxes, and when they encouraged her to go get one for herself she asked why she would need a box since she had no shoes to put in it.  Warthe says when the child was finally coaxed to take a box, she began to weep because inside was a brand new pair of white shoes in her exact size.  She notes at that moment the girl knew someone loved her.

Warthe adds a boy from Russia received a small towel in his shoebox and it turns out he had been sharing a towel with six other children in his orphanage.  She says later,  after that child was adopted and taken to the United States, he saw the shoebox his new family was packing and remembered how one of those gifts had given him hope and changed his life.  

Warthe notes these kinds of stories motivate people across Canada to pitch in for Operation Christmas Child each year.  She adds even though most of them will never get to meet the kids who receive their gifts, they make a tangible difference by sharing love and meeting a need.  Warthe says although we never know what we're going to put in that box,  so often it seems to be just the right things that a child truly needs.  She adds each of us can indeed make a difference in our world.