New Life Serves As Operation Christmas Child Collection Point
On Nov. 15, Laurelyn Schrom; her children Toby, Bethany, and Hannah; and other volunteers were hard at work at New Life Assembly of God, 1991 Old Philadelphia Pike, Lancaster. They were packing red and green shoeboxes stuffed with toys into cardboard cartons.
"We usually process 2,000 to 3,000 (Operation Christmas Child, OCC) shoeboxes here," said Laurelyn, who noted that up to 16 shoeboxes can be packed in a single carton. On Nov. 15, which was the first day of receiving boxes, the group had received about 1,500. "Someone dropped nearly 1,000," pointed out Laurelyn, who added that Monday is usually the biggest day of receiving boxes. The collection continued through Nov. 22, when boxes were loaded into trailers and taken to Baltimore for further processing.
Laurelyn noted that in Baltimore certain items that can't be shipped may be removed from the boxes. "There can't be any liquids or toy weapons in them," she explained, noting that the processors in Baltimore make sure everything in the OCC boxes is appropriate with a goal of changing as little as possible. "They try not to change anything because they really want to preserve the integrity of the gift," she said. "They try to keep the gift intact as it's been packed."
Hannah and Bethany have both traveled to Baltimore to help with the processing. "We go down to process for a day," said Hannah, who explained that they usually arrive at 7 a.m. and leave around 5 p.m. Bethany added that shifts may range from three hours to eight hours, so volunteers can choose how long they want to serve.
The Schrom family has been involved with the OCC processing at New Life since about 2008, when it was a drop-off center. About 2011, the church became a collection center as well as a drop-off point where other churches can bring their collected boxes to be processed. "This year four churches feed to us," said Laurelyn, who said that Wrightsdale Baptist Church in Peach Bottom, Petra Church in New Holland, Community Bible Church in Marietta, and Middle Octorara Presbyterian Church in Quarryville were all bringing shoeboxes to New Life to be packed.
The Schroms have tracked OCC shoeboxes they packed to faraway places such as the Ukraine, Panama, Colombia, and Zimbabwe. "We tracked ours just for fun," said Laurelyn, who noted that this year's worldwide shoebox distribution goal is 9.7 million.
More information about OCC may be found at http://www.samaritanspurse.org.
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