Local teen joins project to send gifts around the world
Karley Wilson, 16, of Rices Landing, adds boxes she collected for Operation Christmas Child as a National Honor Society project to those at Oak View United Methodist Church in Waynesburg.
Courtesy of Samaritan’s Purse
A Liberian youth smiles when he is presented with a shoebox from Operation Christmas Child.
Photo courtesy of Samaritan’s Purse Burmese children in a Christian school happily show off the gifts they received from Operation Christmas Child.
WAYNESBURG – When Karley Wilson, 16, of Rices Landing, listened to a speaker at the Hewitt Presbyterian Church in Rices Landing talk about how excited children were when they received a simple shoe box filled with small items through a project known as Operation Christmas Child, it moved her to action.
Wilson, a member of the National Honor Society at Jefferson-Morgan Junior-Senior High School, took it upon herself to make Operation Christmas Child her personal service project for NHS.
“Our church has been doing it for the past two years. I set a goal of 50 boxes, and I got 61,” she said.
The boxes put together by Wilson, her mother, Gwyneth Komula, and younger sister, Kara Komula, contain a variety of items. Wilson said the boxes contain things such as pencils and sharpeners, paper clips, soap, winter gloves and small toys. The boxes are labeled boy or girl and with the appropriate age range of the intended child.
“They live in really impoverished areas. One of the churches had a dirt floor,” Wilson said, recalling what the guest speaker told them. “He said how excited the kids would act when they got the boxes.”
Wilson enlisted the help of her fellow congregants at Hewitt Presbyterian to bring in a designated item every month.
“I’d ask for a certain item like a notebook or pencils and then I would collect them and separate them. In the end, I put them into the shoe boxes. It took about five hours to fold the boxes and a whole day to pack them,” Wilson said. “My mom and my younger sister helped.”
In addition to the items inside the boxes, the members of Wilson’s church also gave monetary donations to help with the cost of shipping the gifts internationally. Each box costs roughly $7 to ship. Wilson said she had all of the shipping money for the 61 boxes in a matter of weeks.
Started in 1990, Operation Christmas Child was adopted in 1993 by the international relief organization, Samaritan’s Purse. Since that time, 113 million shoe boxes have been collected and delivered to more than 150 countries.
Wilson and her stepfather, Matt Komula, delivered her boxes to the local drop-off site at the Oak View United Methodist Church in Waynesburg Thursday. From there, the gifts will be taken to a regional processing center where volunteers will prepare them for the trip overseas.
“It worked out way better than I expected,” Wilson said, unloading boxes.
Her boxes were added to hundreds of boxes already received by individuals and groups at Oak View United Methodist Church. A large donation of boxes brought there came from students at Waynesburg University, said Greene County coordinator Nicki Strayer.
“Oak View United Methodist Church took over as a relay center for Operation Christmas Child in 2007. To date, Greene County has really committed to this program,” said Strayer. “The number of shoe boxes has increased each year. That first year, 775 shoe boxes were collected. Last year, 1,519 were collected.”
Held the third week in November each year, Operation Christmas Child sends the boxes to children all over the world who live in extreme poverty, war torn areas or those hit by natural disasters.
These children have suffered the effects of war, genocide, AIDS, natural disaster or poverty. For some, it is the first gift they will have received in their lifetime.
“This is such a fun project for all ages,” Strayer said. “These shoe boxes are changing lives of children around the world, one shoe box at a time.”
Those who participate in putting together boxes for the project can choose whether the box is for a boy or girl and from ages 2 to 4, 5 to 9 or 10 to 14. Plastic containers of similar size to a shoebox are also acceptable vessels for the gifts. If one chooses to wrap the boxes or containers, the lid must be wrapped separately and a rubber band placed around the base and lid to hold it together.
Items that may not be included are used or damaged items; war-related items such as toy guns, knives or military figures; chocolate or food; out-of-date candy; liquids or lotions; medications or vitamins; breakable items such as snow globes or glass containers; and aerosol cans.
From Bosnia to Africa, by planes, camels, donkeys and river boats, children receive the boxes each year. They have contained coats, bells, scarves, school supplies, utensils and cups, stuffed animals, noise makers, books and even letters and photographs identifying the giver.
“The distributions often begin with music or puppets and include a presentation of the Gospel that a child can understand,” according to the Samaritan’s Purse website. “Then the big moment comes, each child receives a shoe box and after a countdown, they all open their gifts at the same time. Squeals of delight and shouts of joy fill the meeting area,” the website says.
Final collections from Greene County for the 2014 delivery will be accepted noon to 4 p.m. today and until 2 p.m. Sunday at Oak View United Methodist Church.
For more information, visit www.samaritanspurse.org.