My good friend Andrea and I finally managed to sign up to volunteer (always full in the past) at the Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child warehouse in Calgary. There are only two warehouses in all of Canada, one on each side of the country, where all the shoe boxes go to be checked over and packaged up for their plane ride to either Nicaragua, Costa Rica or Uruguay.
It is a huge warehouse set up with many tables.
At the end of each table is a bin full of shoe boxes lovingly donated by people all over Canada, two were from my children!
Each table is set up for 4 volunteers. One to do a pre-inspection which involves pulling out the donations and setting the money aside.
Two volunteers (Andrea and I) go through each box, pulling everything out and making sure that everything is allowed through customs. If some boxes are not full there is a large variety of extra supplies that can be add in. If a box needs a lot of extra help it is sent to the Box Hospital! where there are lots of supplies donated by people to fill them up.
Last the box goes to the 4th volunteer to be taped shut and sent down the row to be boxed up in larger boxes.
The outer perimeter of the warehouse was stacked with these packed boxes all ready to be loaded onto a plane. We had a lot of fun seeing the creative and generous boxes that were filled by Canadians and were excited to have a small part in getting them ready for the children. We are hoping to be able to go and volunteer every year.
No comments:
Post a Comment