Christmas cheer one box at a time

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Published on Thursday, November 26, 2015

Photo by Kira Paterson. Darlene Giesbrecht loaded up a total of 353 Operation Christmas Child boxes from the Neepawa area.

By Kira Paterson

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

On Tuesday, Nov. 17, Neepawa’s Darlene Giesbrecht started collecting Operation Christmas Child (OCC) boxes to take to Brandon.

She went to businesses, schools and churches in and around Neepawa that were community depots for the OCC boxes. A total of 353 boxes from the area were collected. 

OCC is a program started by Samaritan’s Purse that supplies shoeboxes for people to fill with gifts to be sent to children suffering from poverty in 150 countries around the world. The countries that the boxes from Canada go to include Haiti, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Chile, Uruguay, Ukraine, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Senegal. 

Last year, Giesbrecht went to Costa Rica to distribute the OCC boxes. “The joy and excitement that one shoebox can give is amazing,” she said. “So I would like to say a big thank you to our community on behalf of Samaritan’s Purse and the children who will be receiving these boxes for taking the time to show you care.”