Church collects gifts for poor children (From Witney Gazette)

Church collects gifts for poor children

9:00am Wednesday 8th November 2006 in Witney By Ruth Keeling

CHILDREN who have never received a gift in their lives will be smiling this Christmas thanks to 'Operation Christmas Child'.

Members of Witney's High Street Methodist Church are collecting shoe boxes, wrapped in festive paper and filled with gifts from schools, businesses, organisations, and individuals across the town.

Under the scheme, run by the charity Samaritans Purse, the gifts will be packed up and ferried off in trucks to deprived children in orphanages, homeless shelters, schools, and refugee camps in 14 different countries.

Ann Worrall, the scheme's co-ordinator in Witney, said: "They are going to children who have nothing.

"For some of these children, it will be the only gift they have received in their lifetime. We're not talking about the only gift this year, but the only gift ever."

The scheme has been going, and growing, for several years, and last year, more than 2,300 boxes were sent from Witney.

Mrs Worrall believes they are likely to collect more than 3,000 this year, and puts the popularity of the scheme down to the fact that, instead of giving money, the boxes are a donation that takes thought.

She said: "If you think of our own children, they get so much, and these are children who have nothing. You are packing a box for a child, it is a gift from one person to another.

"You can tell when you open some of the boxes that so much love and care and imagination has gone into packing them."

As well as toys, the boxes can include items as basic as pens, pencils, and paper, hats, scarfs and gloves, or toothpaste and toothbrushes.

Mrs Worrall said: "It sounds silly, but face flannels too. These are things that these children just don't have."

Some gifts cannot be included, such as used and damaged items, things related to war, such as toy guns, liquids or lotions, breakable items, and chocolate or food. For more information about the scheme, and what can and cannot be given, visit the website www.samaritanspurse.org, or drop into the High Street Methodist Church any weekday between 10am and 3pm.

The boxes can be delivered to the church until Monday, November 20, when a dedication service will be held before all the boxes are checked and sent off in time for December 25.