Our Girl Scouts never fail to overflow their generous hearts to bless others in need. This is our second year participating in Operation Christmas Child (OCC) as a troop service project. But when we really think about it, participating in OCC really goes beyond "service" for our girls. Operation Christmas Child is a mission to help fulfill their desire to help other other children and make the world a better place. OCC brings joy and the message of Christmas to children in 130 different countries who are in poverty situations.
For this troop meeting we began with our OCC project. The girls collectively brought items to donate to a variety of shoe boxes for boys and girls ranging in ages 2-14 years old. (see
THIS POST for the details).
This year, we filled a total of 17 boxes!!! Here is the break down of what the girl filled~
Girl Boxes (12 total):
age 2-4 = Four (4) Boxes
age 5-9 = Two (2) Boxes
age 10-14= Six (6) Boxes
Boy Boxes (5 total):
age 2-4 = One (1) Box
age 5-9 = Two (2) Boxes
age 10-14 = Two (2) Boxes
THANK YOU PARENT AND LEADER VOLUNTEERS!!! You're help was HUGE!
~Lisa ~Novia ~Kristi ~Tammy ~Noemi ~Mandy ~Holly ~Stephanie ~Irma ~Rae Marie ~Jessica
And, THANK YOU, NOEMI for bringing the SNACK and DRINK this week!
Getting everything fit into the boxes was like putting a puzzle together!
...each item placed in the boxes with love...
Once the girls got the boxes filled by gender and age, the group gathered around the table of gifts in a circle, held hands hands with each other, while an adult led the girls in a word of prayer over the boxes~
"Thank you God for this opportunity to help make a difference in the lives of other children all over the world and help make the world a better place!
Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ… it’s a time to honor His birthday. And as we all know, when it’s someone’s “Birthday”, it is a tradition to give them gifts. Today we come together as a Girl Scout troop to give Jesus a birthday gift. We are participating in Operation Christmas Child to give these gifts with joy, love, and a spirit of goodness. The children receiving these gifts, are receiving them in honor of Christmas, Jesus’ Birthday. When Jesus was alive, He told his friends “when you give to the poor, give to the hungry, give to people in need, it’s the same as giving to me” (paraphrased from Matthew 25:40) May each gift we send be a blessing to each child receiving them and may these little ones who receive these gifts experience the true spirit of Christmas this year and always! May God bless them and their families. In Jesus’ name we pray… AND EVERY ONE SAY~ AMEN.”
Troop #9691,
Since she missed the troop meeting, leader, Teri, double checked the boxes at her house to make sure all the soap bars and hard candy were placed in individual zip-lock bags before we turned them in to OCC.
The Daisy girls made cards at a previous troop meeting for the children (only two examples are shown)
...and a picture of the troop (above) was also included.
Labels were printed with a bar code for tracking; they were secured with shipping tape on each of the 17 boxes.
Sometime in the month of January, we will find out what countries our 17 boxes were sent to.
When I phoned OCC to inquire about how we properly "follow our boxes"(because last year we never found out where they went), the lady I talked to was real sweet. She was able to look it up and I was informed that last year, ALL 10 of our boxes were sent to Mexico and blessed children in our neighboring country~ apparently an email was probably sent, and I now suspect it ended up in my spam folder. This year I'll watch for the email since I know to expect it!
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/Mexico/
Thank you Girl Scout families for your support with this project!
The girls are learning some important life lessons through OCC project! Ask your Girl Scout what they learned. Let them know how proud you are of them for their commitment to making the world a better place in all they do through Girl Scouts.
Leaders, Lisa, 
VERY COOL!
