Shipping off smiles

Charleswood

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This article was published 15/11/2023 (1011 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Barbara Shumeley started the Winnipeg chapter of the Samaritan’s Purse: Operation Christmas Child out of her own basement.

Her initial goal was to fill 1,000 shoe boxes with essential items such as school supplies, clothing, and a comfort item to be shipped out of the country and overseas to families and children living in poverty around the world. This year, that goal has long since been surpassed. In fact, at press time, Shumeley and a group of 17 volunteers — or ‘elves’ — had been able to pack over 1,203.

Samaritan’s Purse is an international, religion-based relief fund. Christmas shoe boxes from the Operation Christmas Child project can be ordered anywhere across the country, where they are then filled independently, brought to one of many drop-off locations by the annual deadline, which is Nov. 18, and then sent to children in more than 170 countries, according to the organization’s website.

While this may be Shumeley’s last year as a local project leader, she said the need for the project just keeps growing.

Shumeley, a retired nurse who has been recognized nationally for her work in breast cancer research, began doing volunteer work of this nature when her mother was in a local nursing home.

She had met a lady there who was doing something similar, she said, and enjoyed helping her out.

“She was crocheting and packing a large number of boxes and — I’m so good at shopping — I was buying things and giving them to her,” she said.

Eventually, she took the packing into her own hands.

“It gradually increased from there,” she said. “1,000 was a goal, but it was never enough for me. As long as there’s stuff there, I want to continue.”

For the past three years, the chapter has been upgraded from Shumeley’s basement and moved into a proper storage unit supplied by Access Storage. The space has been “influential” in keeping the project going for so long. It not only provides more room and storage for boxes, supplies, and volunteers, it has also given Shumeley a spot to continue working on the project away from home — where she now spends time taking care of her husband. who has been diagnosed with dementia.

Posy Varma — also a retired nurse — has been a volunteer with the project for two years now. The Charleswood resident began volunteering after the death of her husband in order to keep busy and get out of the house, she said.

Varma was already knitting for a separate group she’s still in, Helping Hands, when she met Shumeley and joined in.

“I asked Barb if she’d like for me to make some for the shoe boxes, and she jumped on it,” Varma said, with a laugh.

“I felt a bit threatened, at first,” she admitted, adding that the group creates different boxes for multiple age groups. A box for a boy aged two to three years old is going to vary from one meant for a girl aged seven to 10, Varma said, and one can only fit so much in a single shoe box — although, they do stuff them pretty full.

“Once you focus and know what you’re doing, it becomes a real pleasure,” she continued. “When I’m closing the box, I can see the child opening it later and the smile on their face.”

Apart from the space provided Access Storage, the chapter has so far operated solely through the bank accounts of volunteers.

Shumeley, who prides herself on her skill at shopping and bargaining for essential items — which range from flip-flops to pencil cases — does so out of her own pocket and pension. But, owing to inflation, the team has had to get creative this year in how it gathers and uses supplies.

That often means experimenting with hand-made items such as tote bags and jewelry, an area of the work that Shumeley has a lot of pride in.

“I find a lot of joy in this,” Varma said. “It’s therapy, as well.”

Although the group is just winding up this year’s campaign they collect and prepare boxes year-round.

Anyone interested in lending a hand — through donations, knitting, sewing, or more — are encouraged to reach out to barbarash@shaw.ca

Visit www.samaritanspurse.ca/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child for more information.