Commissioners proclaim Operation Christmas Child Month

Commissioners signed a proclamation for Operation Christmas Child at their Wednesday, Oct. 3 meeting. Ed and Helen Hiestand and Jerry and Lela McWhorter, OCC year-round volunteers on the South Central Ohio Area Team, were present for the proclamation.

Prior to the proclamation, Helen Hiestand talked about the local volunteers who traveled to Uganda earlier this year as part of the shoebox ministry distribution.

"You ask a child in Uganda, 'What's your favorite thing in the shoebox?' Soap.

"Soap?"

"Yes. It smells nice," the child says.

"There aren't a lot of nice smells in (Uganda capital!!!)," Hiestand explained.

"This fills a real need for children in poverty that you cannot imagine."

Hiestand added that the program tries to "share the Gospel one shoebox at a time."

Each Christmas shoebox will touch at least seven people, she said.

Hiestand is working with volunteers in Adams, Brown, Clinton, Fayette and Highland counties to fill as many shoeboxes as possible prior to the collection week, Nov. 12-19.

Local dropoff sites include the Hillsboro First United Methodist Church and the First Baptist Church in Greenfield.

"In virtually every instance of distribution, there are children who are left out," Hiestand said. "There are never enough boxes."

Hiestand explained that at many distribution centers there are as many or more children looking in from the outside as there are who receive Christmas shoeboxes.

"The simplest of items are life-changing," Hiestand said. "A bar of soap. A toothbrush. A new T-shirt. Crayons. Pencils. These kids love pencils. Pencils are most wanted."

Hiestand broke it down in these terms: An eight-count box of crayons is a week's salary in Uganda."

Operation Christmas Child is a year-round project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse. Participants can fill shoe boxes with school supplies, small toys, necessity (hygiene) items and letters of encouragement for delivery to children overseas.

This shoe box packing effort, requiring months of organization and preparation, will reach some 8.5 million children who are suffering because of natural disaster, disease, war, terrorism, famine and poverty.

For many of these children, the shoe box will be the first gift they have ever received. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has hand-delivered shoe box gifts to more than 86 million children in 130 countries.

For more information on how to pack a shoe box, or about Operation Christmas Child, call 800-353-5949 or go to www.samaritanpurse.org.

Locally, contact Ed and Helen Hiestand, South Central Ohio Area coordinators, at 937-393-2790.

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• In other business, commissioners also met with John Hemmings, Ohio Valley Regional Development Commission executive director, regarding a payment on the C-Mold revolving loan fund.

Commissioners voted, 3-0, to approve a required payment of $5,000.

Hemmings said the Greenfield manufacturer has met all requirements on job creation – including hiring employees in the low to moderate income levels.

"In 2009, they had 42 jobs – that would likely have gone away," Wilkin said. "Now, they are at 85 jobs."

"If it hadn't been for this program, they wouldn't be here," Horst said.

Commissioners thanked OVRDC for partnering with the county three years ago to ensure C-Mold's stability and growth in the region.