Setting a shoebox record for the fifth straight year

BARRHEAD - Just how many times can a community keep breaking its own record?

It is a question that Herb Mantey has asked himself for the last five years as Barrhead continues to set a new record for the number of shoeboxes it donates for Operation Christmas Child (OCC).

This year, Barrhead-area residents donated 1,216 shoeboxes. Last year, it was 1,010.

And that does not include the shoeboxes community members built online.

"I equate it to a race car driver who keeps beating his own speed record," Herb said. "You would think there would be a time when it becomes impossible to keep eclipsing that record, but year after year, the residents keep surprising us with a new record of donations."

Operation Christmas Child (OCC) is a project run by Samaritan's Purse Canada, a non-denominational evangelical Christian organization founded in 1970 which delivers shoeboxes of Christmas gifts for needy children in all corners of the world.

Depending on the year and what is happening worldwide, Canadian-filled boxes can go to various countries almost anywhere. In recent years, Canadian boxes have gone to Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua and Africa (Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Sierra Leone).

Herb and his wife, Derra, have spearheaded the community's OCC effort through the Barrhead Alliance Church for the last 16 years.

On Saturday, Nov. 18, the church held its annual packing party, in which it prepared the shoeboxes donated by residents for shipping to OCC's Alberta hub in Calgary, often adding a unique handcrafted knitted, crotcheted or sewn items from one of several community groups, including, the Hillcrest Lodge's Knitting Club, Barrhead Lutheran Church's Stitchers Outreach Club, Barrhead's Stitchers and Rippers, and several other interested individuals in the community.

The close to 40 volunteers also packed several hundred shoe boxes (also included in the record total) from the previously mentioned handcrafted items, along with other things members of the public donated that would not fit in their shoebox or that the church purchased itself through the public's financial donations.

The Barrhead OCC also helped ship Whitecourt's 310 shoeboxes.

"We ran out of shoeboxes," Herb said, adding the volunteers put the remaining items into seven large cartons, large enough to hold 24 shoeboxes for Samaritan's Purse volunteers to include in other communities' boxes put together in Calgary.

However, Herb noted that if they had had enough boxes, it would have added roughly another 170 to the community's record total.

Derra added that one senior lady donated 500 toques that she made herself alone.

"I'm not sure how many handmade items there were, but there were well over a thousand," she said.

The handmade items included everything from winter outerwear, dresses, T-shirts, pants, dolls and stuffies to washcloths and feminine hygiene products.

"I can't believe how dedicated they are to this program," Derra said, adding that a day after Hillcrest Lodge held its annual knitting wrap-up collection party on Nov. 13, she met one of the women who contributed several hundred items. "She said she already started knitting items for next year."

Herb added that it is truly a community effort from those who donate shoeboxes and all the handmade and other items to Neerlandia Co-op, transporting Barrhead's donations to OCC's distribution hubs.

"Every year, I am amazed at the generosity of our residents. We live in such an amazing community," he said.

The Manteys also reminded people that although they missed the deadline to donate a physical shoebox, they can create one online at www.samaritanspurse.org.

Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com