During these challenging times, there are many children all around the world who are suffering and hurting more than usual. The Reno-based Monroe Schuler Foundation has been working to spread some joy to underprivileged children around the world during this festive season, and for many past Christmasses as part of a Samaritan’s Purse led drive.
The humanitarian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse founded their Operation Christmas Child Program in 1970. The concept is simple: take a shoebox, fill it with fun and useful items for a child that is the age and gender of your choosing, and it will be sent off somewhere around the world to a child that needs those items the most.
“Samaritan’s Purse really makes an effort to find the most impoverished and hardest-to-reach children they can,” Brent Hardgrave, Samaritan’s Purse Area Coordinator explains. “They work with local churches in countries overseas and they do shoebox distributions at those churches, schools, out in the town center – wherever they can gather the kids together and hand out boxes. Operation Christmas Child has sent boxes to over 170 countries worldwide at this point in time. Since 1993, there have been over 198 million children that have received shoebox gifts. Last year alone, there were over 10.5 million and the goal this year is 11 million. It’s a very big program.”
Carol and Brent above. For those who wish to get involved, the cut-off date for online box-building is November 20th and can be accessed through the Monroe Schuler Foundation’s Operation Christmas Child landing page. If you plan on building a box at home and either dropping it off or arranging for pick up, boxes must be done by November 17th. On Monday 22nd November, Brent and his team will be collecting boxes from the Monroe Schuler Foundation along with six other local church drop-off locations, so make sure your boxes are in by those aforementioned dates.
The Operation Christmas Child Website has a comprehensive list of all the different items you can fill the shoeboxes with, and also items they urge participants to leave out. Their recommendations are based on the child's gender and age range and include items such as stuffed animals, clothing, toothbrush, comb, picture and coloring books, and school supplies.
Carol Betz has been working alongside Beth and Michael Schuler of the Monroe Schuler Foundation for nearly 12 years. Carol suggests that when shopping for the contents of your shoeboxes, aim for “a balanced mix of hygiene items, some fun items, a special ‘wow’ item, and then school and educational supplies. Quite often, people will include a pair of flip-flops or sandals in their boxes since sometimes kids can’t go to school unless they have shoes.”
Brent explains the concept of a ‘wow item’ as “one thing that will grab the kid’s attention.” They also recommend enclosing a personal note to the child receiving the shoebox, along with a photo of yourself, your family, or your group. If you include your name and a return address, the child may be able to write back.
Items that box-builders are urged to avoid including are candy, toothpaste, gum, scary or war-related items like toy guns or military figurines, chocolate or food, fruit snacks, drink mixes, liquids or lotions, medications or vitamins, and anything breakable or made of glass.
“We used to be able to put candy in the boxes, but it held things up at customs so we can’t do that anymore,” Carol said. “But most of the boxes have personal letters inside. We normally do an in-person gathering, a box-builidng party. We provide tape, boxes, wrapping paper, and sometimes people will donate hygiene products like toothbrushes and combs for people to add to their boxes.”
A letter from a member of the Schuler family included with one of the boxes.
Michael Schuler’s mother started doing the shoeboxes years and years ago, and they used to hold the box-building event at the family house. For the past two years, due to health reasons amongst the family, they haven’t been able to host the in-person event they normally do. “We’re very hopeful that next year we can gather in person again and hold the event because it’s very fun,” Carol urges. “We encourage people to share the shoebox building with friends. Especially when we have the in-person party again next year, we want you to bring people! We provide food and drink, and encourage as many people as possible to get involved. I find that once people have done it, they often come back year after year.”
At previous events, the Monroe Schuler Foundation had speakers join them. “They were people who had actually received a shoebox,” Carol explains. “They came to our shoebox parties and told their stories which are phenomenal and sometimes funny. One girl told us about how she received a mini etch-a-sketch in her box, and nobody had any idea what it was. Then one day, she was twiddling the knobs and realized, by accident, you could draw with it! She said that even with the toothpaste they received, they’d use it so sparingly, dabbing it onto their finger to make it last as long as possible. The girl telling us these stories now works for Samaritan’s Purse because of how much she was impacted by the Operation Christmas Child program as a kid.”
For those opting to build their shoeboxes at home, they can get in contact with Carol at (775) 852-3427 or adm@renoseven.com to arrange a drop-off time. If participants cannot drop off the box, the Monroe Schuler Foundation will pick them up.
Despite not having an in-person celebration this year, shoebox building is going full steam ahead virtually. There are two options to get involved. The first is by going to the Monroe Schuler Foundation landing page on the Operation Christmas Child website. You can build the shoebox completely online, adding relevant items to your box for each category as you go along. Each box has a $10 shipping fee, which was just increased this year. It ensures that the boxes make it to the collection centers, and onto their final destinations. The Monroe Schuler Foundation will cover the $10 shipping and handling fee for every box.
The second way to get involved is to build your own boxes at home. You can use all kinds of boxes; cardboard, plastic bins, or an empty shoebox you have lying around in your house gathering dust. Karen explains; “I love the plastic boxes you can get from Hobby Lobby because they last so much longer. The kids will use them and keep their treasures in the box and take it to school with them. They also withstand the weather, so we do encourage people if they can to build with plastic boxes.” Additionally, there is no stated size limit for how big the boxes can be, however, Brent urges that builders stick to the shoebox size if they can: “Picture yourself being the little kid who has a shoebox sitting next to another kid who has a huge box three times the size. We really recommend a standard shoebox size to keep it fair.”
Once the Monroe Schuler Foundation has received and collected all the filled shoeboxes, they will be loaded onto cartons and shipped to one of the big processing centers for inspection before being sent to customs and their international destinations.
The centers are staffed by volunteers, who carefully open and go through every box, making sure that there is nothing among the contents that may hold the box up in customs, or is suspicious or inappropriate.
Last year, the Monroe Schuler Foundation’s efforts resulted in 963 Operation Christmas Child boxes built and sent to children all around the world. Their goal this year is 1000 boxes, and they are very motivated to reach that number. While some other churches in Reno are also involved in efforts to accumulate and donate shoeboxes to the program, the Monroe Schuler Foundation is by far the largest group effort in town.