Sunday, The Day of Rest

Well, not in the World of Shoeboxes.
After a very productive Saturday morning at the warehouse when we can welcome people who love to help us with the shoeboxes but cannot come throughout the week. We had over 40 helpers, thanks to them all. Sunday lots of churches collect their shoeboxes and this week was no exception. Stephen, Eleanor  and Jenny went along to St Michael's the Archangel Church, Aldershot. Jenny spoke about her trip to Kyrgyzstan and how the shoeboxes were so well received there. St Michael's collected nearly 200 shoeboxes, which the children brought up to the front of the church. After they were blessed there was a human chain all the way through the church, throughout the churchyard and into the road where the OCC van was parked. It was a fantastic sight and great fun, everyone joined in, adults and children alike.

Visitors Today
The Knit and Natter ladies from Farnham helped us for a short while this afternoon and it's always such a pleasure to see them, not only do they do knitting for us throughout the year they also come and check some of the shoeboxes. Thanks Ladies.

Also today we had some of the team from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). They have an Orange day where members of staff take a day out to work for a charity. We are so delighted that so many of them decided to come and support us. We hope they feel their time is worth while and leave us feeling inspired. Of course we mustn't forget that GSK also donate toothbrushes and toothpaste to us. We always seem to run out but with their ongoing support we can manage to ensure far more shoeboxes do go with the all important toothpaste and brush especially with those sweets. 




Potters Gate School
There are so many schools that help and here we have Potters Gate.  This year Potters Gate School, Farnham, asked the children either to bring in a box of their own or they asked each year to bring in various items from the GIFTS list, one year brought the toiletries, another the stationery etc.  Several Mums then had fun over coffee and delicious ginger cake making up the fillers into good boxes.  Maureen joined in and took her Kyrgyzstan photos along which has inspired some of the Mum's to get more involved next year.






Crafts.
We get hats, scarves, gloves, hand puppets knitted and donated to us, thanks to everyone who takes time to make all those things. We have shown you many things people have made over the time here but once in a while we come across something a little bit different and something quite special. 
Here we have a hand made pencil case, very unique, different and so well made.