Kia Ora, we are Kester and Harriette, and we are the Event Organisers for the Student Council and we have an upcoming event, Operation Christmas Child.

The idea behind Operation Christmas Child is to give to the many underprivileged children in the Pacific region so that they get a gift for Christmas. Some of the countries that gift boxes get sent to include Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. This is organised by an organisation called ‘Samaritan’s Purse’. This charitable organisation collects and distributes shoeboxes filled with gifts and delivers them to children in need around the world. The boxes don’t always arrive exactly at Christmas, but the idea is that when they do arrive, it feels like Christmas to the child receiving it. The boxes are hand delivered.

Each shoe box is filled with simple gifts. Suggestions are; something to wear (an item of clothing or footwear), something to play with (a toy), something for school (stationary), something to love (teddy), something special and something for personal hygiene (toothbrush). Everything needs to be able to fit in a shoebox and shouldn’t be wrapped, (the boxes are wrapped at the end before they’re given out). There are a couple of different age groups that the shoe boxes are categorised into; gifts for 2-4 year olds, 5-9 and 10-14 year olds, for either boys and girls. If you and your tamariki choose to participate, there are three options. 

The tamariki can:

1. They can take a shoe box home and fill it.

2. They can bring things to help fill a shoe box.

3. They can bring money that will help with postage and transport.

Each area of the school will have a collection point with boxes. If you are sending gifts, all you need to do is tell us what age and gender the gift is for.

In 2016 11 million shoe boxes were delivered worldwide. 340,000 of those were from Australia and New Zealand. 34,000 of those were from New Zealand and 8,000 were from the South Island.

We were hoping that our wonderful Mt Pleasant Community will get involved and help make the gift of Christmas a reality for even more children this year.

We will be having assemblies with the different teams around the school so your child will learn more about it over the next week or two.  If your whānau would like to donate, we do ask that the gifts be small because everything has to be able to fit in a shoebox!

If you don’t want to supply a gift/s but would like to make a donation, that too would be welcome and the Student Council representatives will purchase gifts on behalf of the school. Our school goal is to fill 50 shoe boxes.

If you have any questions, you can email Louise Wilson (our teacher in charge of helping the School Council) @ louise@mtpleasant.school.nz

Many thanks - hope you can get involved.

Kester and Harriette