WINNSBORO – The East Midland SC Area Operation Christmas Child team announced that their volunteers donated 24,599 shoeboxes full of gifts during Christmas 2023, for children in poor and developing counties around the world.
The announcement was made during the global nonprofit program’s annual celebration event on March 3 at N. Trenholm Baptist Church in Columbia.
The group prayed, sung praises and worshipped during the event, and also heard the testimony of Irina Creek from the former Soviet Union. She shared receiving a shoebox as a little girl and the impact it made on her life.
This year’s local Christmas Child workshop for Fairfield, Richland and Kershaw Counties was launched in September at the First Baptist Church in Winnsboro.
More than 70 people attended the workshop – representing 27 area churches and 1 business – and took shoeboxes with them to fill and return for shipment. Those shoeboxes were filled with age-appropriate gifts and sent to Charlotte for worldwide distribution.
A group of volunteer leaders from Winnsboro First Baptist Church were on hand to lead the process during National Collection Week when the filled shoeboxes were returned.
The N. Carolina and S. Carolina teams filled a total of 1,095,091 shoeboxes, and the United States shoebox total was 10,051,570, making a grand total worldwide 11,330,126 shoeboxes filled and donated.
Those interested in filling shoeboxes next fall can contact Barbara Shoonmaker at [email protected].
