Oana Ennis of Batesville said she remembers the joy she felt as a child in Romania when she received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox filled with school supplies and gifts.
“It was the simple things we were all excited about — spiral notebooks, colored pencils and erasers,” she said. Ennis said the boxes were delivered to her school.
“I remember receiving chocolate, and gloves and hats sometimes. [The gifts] were so much more colorful [than items in Romania], and it was just an amazing gift we received. Everything smelled so good. I still remember the toothpaste smelled so good that some of my friends were eating it,” Ennis said, laughing at the memory.
Because food was rationed in Romania and goods were scarce, “for us, it was a lot of things. That was pretty much our Christmas,” she said.
Ennis, 35, met her husband, Mike, when he went on a mission trip to her hometown in Romania. She was on summer break from college in a nearby city, but she came back to her hometown to work with a youth ministry. She moved to Batesville 13 years ago.
Now the married mother of four is on the giving end of Operation Christmas Child. As members of Fellowship Bible Church, Mike, Oana and their children fill shoeboxes for children in need.
At the Operation Christmas Child communitywide packing party, set for 5-8 p.m.
Wednesday, Ennis will talk about her childhood experience. The Compass Church in Batesville will host the event at its student center, 290 S. Central Ave.
Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian relief organization.
The shoebox project began in 1990 when Dave Cooke, a father of four from North Wales, saw a news report on abandoned children in Romanian orphanages, and he got friends together to collect toys for them, according to samaritans-purse.org.uk. His project later merged with Samaritan’s Purse.
Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected and delivered more than 168 million shoebox gifts to children in more than 160 countries and territories, according to samaritanspurse.org/occ.
Summer Sudol has led the project at The Compass Church, where she is a member, for several years and spearheaded the community packing party.
“Four years ago, I was like, ‘Hey, we should put our efforts together and do a communitywide one,’” Sudol said. She said about 100 people usually attend the event.
“Our goal is to pack at least 500 boxes,” she said.
Sudol said a list of items to pack is available, and it includes basics such as washcloths, bar soap and toothbrushes. Each person is asked to bring at least one item to the packing party.
“Some churches will say, ‘We’ll collect 50 washcloths’; some will say, ‘We’ll collect 50 toothbrushes,’” she said. The goal is to have 500 of each item on the list.
Toothpaste is no longer allowed, nor is candy, because of customs regulations, according to the website.
Also included in each box is what’s called a “wow” item, a toy or something fun for a youngster. War-related items, toy guns and breakable items, such as snow-globes, are not allowed.
“Wow items, like your stuffed animals or flashlights or different things like that — those can be anything anybody wants to bring,” Sudol said.
Ennis said she often includes a “quality small toy,” such as a doll or a car.
The shipping cost is $9, and people are asked to provide that to mail a shoebox. However, people may pack a box without providing the shipping, Sudol said.
“We have several people in the community who just donate to pay for shipping,” she said.
Faith Posey, a member of Fellowship Bible Church, heads the project each year at that church and serves as the year-round media representative for Operation Christmas Child.
“[Our church members] have done at least 700 boxes the past few years. When we were a little bitty church, we did 25 boxes one year, and I was so excited,” she said, laughing.
People may wrap their own shoeboxes and fill them to be shipped. The lids should still be removable for the boxes to be checked. Boxes are also available at Fellowship Bible Church, Posey said.
The drop-off location for boxes is Calvary Baptist Church, 775 Lyon St. Drop-off hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 18; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 19; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 20; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 21 and 22; 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 23; and 1-4 p.m. Nov. 24.
For more information, call Posey at (870) 805-8049.
Ennis said something that intrigued her as a child was wondering about who sent the shoebox of gifts.
“For me, the best part was, I really wanted to know who sent it. People didn’t [send gifts] in Romania because there was nothing to give. I was just amazed that someone would do that.”
She said that one year, her box included a Christmas card signed by the family who sent the box.
“It felt really special. I encourage people, if they feel like they want to connect with a child, to put maybe a picture and an address so the kid can write them back. It’s nice to have that personal connection.”
And Ennis understands that connection more than most.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-5671 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.