Our Little Corner of the World...: Operation Christmas Child

I have been meaning to post this for a week or so now, but Reid and I have been fighting off some seasonal yuckiness...

Reid's school participates in Operation Christmas Child every year. For those of you not familiar with the program, click here: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/. (It is a fairly widespread program, especially in the Bible Belt, but I know some folks may not know about it.) I liked the idea of trying to teach Reid that he could help someone that he doesn't know, though it's kind of a hard thing to explain to a 2-year-old.

So, in 2-year-old terms, I told him that there was a boy like him who lived very far away - I used the photo of the kid on the brochure, since I thought a visual might be helpful - and that the boy did not have toys or a cool toothbrush like Reid has. Then I asked him if he would help me pick out some things that the boy might like so we could put them in a box and send them to him. After some more discussion, he thought that sounded like an okay idea.

We took a special trip to the Dollar Tree to pick out things for the box. I decided to make a "boy" box because I thought it would be easier for Reid to select the items. We found cars and play dough, and crayons and a coloring book among other things. I also put in some hygiene items like a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, etc. The very lucky boy also got a book of Dora the Explorer stickers. Now, I realize that wherever this box ends up, the child will likely never have heard of Dora but every kid loves stickers. There were lots of other kinds to choose from but it just HAD to be Dora. Reid figured... I love Dora, so how could the the boy far away not also love her? (Well, to put that in 2-year-old speak... "No! The boy likes Dora! He likes Dora!") You just can't argue with that logic. :)

So, we brought all our goodies home to put them in the box. I had wrapped a shoe box in white paper so Reid could decorate it. We used markers and stickers - it was a mess in the end but he was very proud of it. We filled the box and took it to school the next day. He carried it in so proudly but almost had a meltdown when I told him he had to give it to the teacher. He wanted to give it to the boy himself. I had to remind him that the boy lived far away and that Miss Barb (the school director) would mail it with all the other boxes from the other schoolkids. In the end, he gave up the box willingly.

Just this morning, when we got to school, he looked at the poster in the entryway and pointed at "the boy" I had used as my visual. The poster is now surrounded by a mountain of shoe boxes waiting to be shipped out. He still remembers putting the box together and why we did it, though it's only been a few weeks. Hopefully we can grow upon this experience into something more meaningful as the years go on.