NEWS RELEASE
OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD, ORILLIA COMMITTEE
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Did you know...even through a year restricted by COVID, we sent 9.1 million shoeboxes around the world globally to children in poverty, struggling through war, living in fear, despair and searching for hope. We trusted and adjusted our plans, we packed and persevered.
Did you know...Orillia had hundreds and hundreds of new first-time volunteers packing shoeboxes, and we sent off a total of 2,637, plus there were more packed online which haven’t yet been added to our total!
Did you know...Orillia was only down 184 boxes from our count in 2019? Wow! Many Ontario communities were down thousands.
We are so thankful for the way Orillia and area residents responded to the call, and how families, groups, Zehrs, Dollar Tree stores and other businesses all stepped up to champion the need.
OCC Shoeboxes boxes are now being delivered year round to 106 different countries in the world, and The Greatest Journey classes continue to be taught with COVID guidelines. In some countries, shoeboxes were delivered door to door because groups could not gather.
In other areas classes were taught via loud speakers mounted on top of a truck from the roadway to families gathered in front of their individual homes. Dedicated volunteers have risen and given, like never before....they have found ways internationally to keep sharing hope: COVID could not stop love from spreading!
Here in Canada, a company donated 5,000 bars of soap, another person donated 1,000 knitted hats, 1,000 handmade little dresses, another donated thousands of school books and pencils.... the list goes on and on. In fact in Calgary an extra 19,781 shoeboxes were packed from extra donations alone, and a record number, 58,000 were ordered and packed Canada-wide online.
World wide, there are many incredible stories and exciting results due to your shoe boxes sent, I hope you will check the website for short videos and personal testimonies. In Sierra Leone, a 98 per cent non-Christian country, 59 new churches were started and 35,000 Greatest Journey classes were taught despite a year threatened by COVID.
Worldwide, during the last 10 years, 1 million teachers have been trained, many received an OCC shoe box full of gifts as a child, and their lives were so touched that they now teach the Greatest Journey classes as adults to other children. People are hungry for truth, and hope is alive!
Thank you, for being part of this amazing project that stretches its arms around the world to let children know they matter, and are are loved.
We hope you are eager to pack more shoe boxes this fall, perhaps you have already begun!
For questions or more info please call 705-345-6677. You can find many resources, such as videos, by visiting OperationChristmas Child-Samaritan’s link here.
Samaritans’s Purse Distaster relief teams also work all over the world responding to areas facing natural disasters and responding to those which had come to a halt with COVID!
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