Wokingham

Over the past few weeks, Bearwood College children and staff have adopted ‘Operation Christmas Child’. This is a project of Samaritan’s Purse which aims to distribute shoe boxes covered in Christmas paper and filled with small toys, pencils, crayons, hats and scarves, soaps, toothbrushes and toothpaste to children in hospitals, orphanages, refugee camps, and homeless shelters across Central and Eastern Europe.

Last year Samaritan’s Purse, with the help of their volunteers, was able to distribute over 1.18 million shoe boxes from the UK to suffering children in these areas, and this year the target is to distribute over 1.2 million boxes across Eastern Europe and further afield.

The pupils at Bearwood College, Wokingham have worked in their respective tutor groups and houses to enthusiastically pack their gifts into shoe boxes. Parents have been delighted to encourage the children and the competitive spirit between the houses has spurred the groups on to see which house could put together the most boxes.

With the help of thousands of volunteers, the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse collects and processes these gift-filled shoe boxes in its warehouses across the United Kingdom. Working with national churches and charities, they deliver the boxes to children in hospitals, orphanages, refugee camps, homeless shelters and impoverished neighbourhoods.

Carolyn Bradley, our Receptionist who has been responsible for introducing Operation Christmas Child to Bearwood, says, “Packing a toothbrush, toothpaste and soap as well as cuddly toys, pencils and crayons into a box has really brought home to us all how fortunate we are. There cannot be many of us who would delight in being given what we consider essentials as our Christmas present.”

Pupils at the Wokingham College have watched the Operation Christmas Child video showing children receiving and opening the shoe boxes with grateful excitement a speaker from Samaritan’s Purse came in to talk at Assembly about who received our parcels and the reaction of those children on Christmas morning.

Bearwood College, Wokingham, Berkshire, RG41 5BG