Where will our boxes go?

As with all years past, we will be following our boxes to know where they end up. The countries that will be recieving boxes from the MPLS processing center this year are:

Albania
Brazil
Bolivia
Haiti
Niger
Kenya
Togo
Malaysia
Rwanda
Uganda
Colombia
Suriname

Inventory Update!

Hi-ho. We got more items finished off this weekend!!

Candy, tooth brushes and tooth paste are no longer needed.

Now we need to work on shipping costs, crafts (44 still needed) and pictures for letters.

Kids receiving shoe boxes LOVE getting letters with a picture of who packed the box for them. This year we have pre-printed letters from OCC with blanks to fill in, spaces to draw if you want and a place to tape/glue a wallet-sized picture. At the packing party there will be time set aside for filling out these letters so that each box has one. please come prepared with 4-6 prints of your face to attach to letters. :D The pictures can be a sheet printed off your computer.

Inventory Update :: September

Woo hoo! We got some fun stuff this month. See the updated inventory page.

Here is the short list of what we STILL NEED:

Toothbrushes (3 left to get)

Toothpaste (8 left to get)

candy bags (11 left to get)
Crafts (49 left to get)

Activity Book/Reading Book/Stickers (14 left to get) 

 

- The big thing needed is CRAFTS.

 

- What we have for candy so far is the movie-size boxes of various hard candies, so if we had 11 more of those we'd be set (and not need ziplock bags for them!)

 

- Also, it is time to start thinking about raising shipping costs. A few people indicated at the beginning of the year that they could contribute to this, so if you can, please write out a check to Renewal Vineyard Church and put it in and OCC envelope, which will be at the welcome table and can be given to Travis. We are needing $350 to cover the 50 box goal. When Travis lets me know what has come in I will update here.

Thank sooo much to everyone who has helped buy toys and other supplies for this year! We would not be able to do this without YOU!

Inventory Update :: August

I know it's September, but the items bought in August have been added to the Inventory page.

There were some questions about why it looked like we wanted X amount for the boxes but the needed amount was more. The reason it may look like that is because on the inventory page, the first number in each line is what we have and the second (in parenthesis) is what we still need to reach our goal. To see our goals, please visit the Buying List page. This will have the total amount we need to fill 50 boxes and does not show what we have.

Hopefully that was not confusing?

Now...a friend sent me some money to buy stuff for the shoe boxes so it's time to write my list and be off!

:: Update: What I purchased today is also listed, so you know what we still need! ::

2012 Inventory List Updated

The inventory page has finally been updated with what we have already this year!

Check it out here!

New Year, New List, New Goals

It is time to start gearing up this blog for the upcoming Operation Christmas Child season. Which never really stops...

The old lists and goals will be taken down and new ones put up!

Sweet Colors

Today all of the crayons were purchased, as well as some more candy!

This brings our list down to:
45 lbs Hard Candy
31 bouncy balls (if anyone feels so inclined)

We are also up to $389.40 for shipping costs! Which is what we will be ending at.

Coloring Toothbrushes

We got all the rest of the toothbrushes, some 6 lbs of candy, and 45 boxes of crayons today! :) Woo hoo!

This brings our list down to:
53 lbs Hard Candy
78 Crayons/Colored Pencils/Markers
12 Activity Books
31 bouncy balls (if anyone feels so inclined)

Come Clean

We got all the bar soap we need!!!!! I think some more people are shopping today, and I will find out what they bought after church tonight, so I will wait to post an updated list then. :)

Want to Volunteer? Here's How!

Provision

We received all of the washcloths and ziplock bags needed and some bar soap today! Woot!

This brings our list to:
60 lbs Hard Candy
123 Crayons/Colored Pencils/Markers
111 Bar Soaps
12 Activity Books
57 toothbrushes
31 bouncy balls (if anyone feels so inclined)

I will start updating every time we get something so this will always have the most up to date list. :)

! (UPDATED 10/23)

Whew! It's been a long night, stuffing bags full of pencils, pens, erasers and sharpeners. Fun!

Tonight we received more crayons, stuffed animals and notebooks. Below is a list of what we still need.

60 lbs Hard Candy
123 Crayons/Colored Pencils/Markers
200 Quart Ziplock Bags
131 Bar Soaps
146 Washcloths
12 Activity Books
57 toothbrushes
1 stuffed animal or doll
31 bouncy balls

I am planning on doing another full inventory count throughout this week to make sure I haven't missed anything. :) If there are any count changes I will note it on the inventory page.

UPDATE 10/23: I have updated totals and added some items above that we still need. This is a complete shopping list for November. Please email me as soon as you buy anything off this list with amounts! Thank you.

Inventory Update

We have received a donation of the rest of the pens and notebooks we need! Also in the donation was 200 mini band-aid packs!

Check out the Inventory Page for updates. It was also re-arranged to what we still need is at the top of the page.

New Page!!

There is a new page for you to check out tonight!! It has all the details for the different ways you can volunteer thru church with Operation Christmas Child this year.

Check it out!

October Shopping

Updates!

Last week we got a whole ton of stuff! Check out the inventory page!

We got soap, washcloths, notebooks, crayons, pens, ziplock bags!

August Is Here...What Are You Buying???

Time for July Shopping

Are You Ready?

It's time to start thinking about the fact that there's a really cool way to help Samaritan's Purse with the shoeboxes each year. I'm talking about working at the Distribution Center! Yay!

Last year, Bryan, Judy, Ryan, Janet and I headed over and helped sort boxes for 4 hours. The time went by very quickly (until the last 30 minutes! lol). It was so much fun getting the boxes ready to ship over seas.

We got some training and then got to work. We had money to take out of the boxes (shipping cost donations), make sure there were no liquids, glass/breakables, or 'unacceptable' items, tape the boxes shut, scan bar codes for tracking, and pack in larger boxes for shipping. It may have been tiring work, but it also felt so rewarding!

So...are you interested in joining us this year? Huh? Huh? You should! It will be a blast. Don't worry about trying to plan that far in advance if this is something you can do. Right now, I just need to know if you are interested for reserving a large enough group space. Although the signup time is in August, we won't be actually helping until sometime in November or December. I won't need a final 'yes' until a week before we actually go...that should be enough time for you to see if it will work, right?

Last year we sent 5 people, do you think this year we can send 10?

New Month, Old Goals

Perhaps this blog was not the best idea for this year! I can count on one hand who reads it. It was a great idea. Just bad timing, I guess.

Since there is a slide made for this month of June, I should upload it. But I keep getting errors. Instead, here's a list of what we have started in past months and still need:

76 quart sized ziplock bags
185 bars of soap (wrapped, but not in individual boxes, please!)
180 washcloths
161 toothbrushes
23 stuffed animals/dolls
40 activity books (Kristin finds great ones at JoAnn Fabrics!)

Also, for the few that DO read this blog, I have a question:
Since we decided to fill boxes for 2-4 year olds, do we want to not do (as many) school supplies? We could perhaps not put in notebooks if we don't have them; and put in less pencils, maybe 3 instead of 5 and 1 pen instead of 3? What do you think? Please email me or post here!