Special to the Aroostook Republican
Six local residents recently traveled to Charlotte, N.C., to take part in a very special way of celebrating the Christmas season. The efforts of Carol Blackstone, Dwayne and Lynn Dow, Beth Hartford and Bayfield and Nancy Bubar began locally through the Dunntown Advent Christian Church. The church collected 311 shoeboxes and, with the assistance of two school teachers, Mandy Castonguay of the Saint John Valley and Karen Wark of Fort Fairfield brought the final shoebox tally to over 400.
Six local residents gave up some of their Christmas holiday time with families to spend it in Charlotte, N.C., filling, organizing and wrapping shoeboxes filled with Christmas joy and gifts for less fortunate children around the world. Shown at the door of the distribution center for Samaritan’s Purse, a part of the Billy Graham and Franklin Graham project, from left: Bayfield and Nancy Bubar, of Caribou; Carol Blackstone, of Perham; Beth Hartford, of Washburn; and Lynn and Dwayne Dow, of Wade.
The group made arrangements to volunteer for a three-day period of time to pack and wrap boxes collected nationwide at an Operation Christmas Child distribution center owned by Samaritan’s Purse. One of their days there was known as “Media Day.” The group was fortunate to get the chance to hear Billy Graham’s son Franklin speak while in North Carolina. They also heard from a former Romanian girl who as a child received a treasured shoebox who told of how thankful she was for the shoebox and its contents.
In total, there were about 1,000 workers representing approximately 27 states. Each of the workers worked in “stations” where they were involved in inspecting each box, making sure that only allowable items would be included in the boxes, packed and taped boxes, and wrapped boxes up. The team also worked one day on “special countries’ boxes” which was more intensive due to national securities of the countries, along with their religious restrictions.
The six folks from the Washburn, Wade, Perham and Caribou area enjoyed their time in this operation which included meals from the southern area like Chick-Fil-A. They also took time to visit the Billy Graham Library and noted what an impressive facility it was.
Much thanks goes to the local Dunntown Advent Christian Church for purchasing the flight tickets for these volunteers and all the help they received from various fund-raisers prior to leaving on this excursion.
The district coordinator of Operation Shoebox is Ellie Thomas of the United Baptist Church of Caribou. She will be forming committees the first of the year to plan for future activities concerning this mission outreach.
Those who went to North Carolina this year had a special time and hope to be able to go again. They said they “went to serve, but received blessings in return.”
