Life

Area collects 15,000 shoeboxes for Christmas Child

Scouts from Edneyville Troop 605 pose with a full trailer.

By Bill Moss, Published: November 24, 2012

Diane Uwamahoro was a 7-year-old in Rwanda when she received an unexpected gift.

It was a shoebox filled with items from a land across the ocean. She had to share the contents with her sister. The toothbrush, lotion and soap she needed and appreciated. The jump rope she loved.
"I was my very favorite because I got a jump rope and that was my favorite thing to do," she said.
Little did Diane know that 12 years later she'd be living in a land of plenty where the shoeboxes originated. She was overwhelmed on Saturday when she visited the Operation Christmas Child relay center and saw volunteers loading thousands of shoeboxes for shipping to Charlotte and from there around the world.
"It is a good idea to help other children who doesn't have anything!" said Diane, who is learning English at North Henderson High School and lives with David and Linda Bradley and their daughter, Sara.
"The boxes are a good thing to help children," Diane said. "For me, I want to say thank you for whoever sent my box and God Bless everyone who sends a box."
Volunteers at First Presbyterian Church in Hendersonville wrapped up the eight-day collection operation on Monday night after filling two trailers and part of a third. The total number of boxes shipped to Charlotte was 14,764, said Linda Stephens, who served as collection site coordinator with her husband, Dale. Both took a week off work to volunteer.
The Hendersonville site collected boxes from churches and individuals in Henderson County and as a relay center received truckloads from communities in Polk and Rutherford counties.