Ruth and Ken Ness with their friends Monica and Rob Ens at Operation Christmas Child's processing centre in Calgary. (submitted photo/Samaritan’s Purse Canada)

By Angela Brown

Meaning of Christmas

M.L. volunteers help with Operation Christmas Child in Calgary

Dec 13, 2022 | 5:37 PM

This will be a Christmas to remember for Meadow Lake residents Ruth and Ken Ness who decided to get together with friends and help with the Operation Christmas Child project first-hand this year.

The Ness’ travelled with Monica and Rob Ens of the Prince Albert area to the Operation Christmas Child processing centre in Calgary on Dec. 8 and 9 to help with the effort. Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse. Through the initiative, donations of gift-filled shoeboxes are sent overseas to children in need. The current shipment of boxes is being sent to Central America, West Africa, the Philippines and Ukraine.

Ken Ness said their friends who joined them, Monica and Rob Ens, used to live in Meadow Lake as well, and just moved to Prince Albert a few months ago. So both couples have ties to Meadow Lake.

Ness said it was a great experience taking part in the project.

This is the first year the Ness’ volunteered at the Calgary processing plant.

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“When we got there we said ‘we are game to do whatever is needed,'” Ken said. “So, you just end up in the processing plant doing various tasks, packing the shoeboxes to be sent away to the underprivileged kids.”

The boxes contain items like toys, toothbrushes and school supplies for the children who receive them.

At the end of each day, organizers at the plant would announce how many shoeboxes the roughly 200 volunteers at a time packed.

“Out of our four shifts, the best we did as a group was 10,500 boxes were processed and ready to be shipped out,” Ken said. “There would be loud cheering and clapping when they announced the number. We all would get pretty excited about what we did.”

Ken said he and his wife just wanted to give back to help others less fortunate.

“My wife and I retired about four years ago,” he said. “We said we definitely want to do some volunteer and charity work. So, with this specific cause, our church — the Evangelical Free Church of Meadow Lake — we have been collecting shoeboxes for 15 or 20 years, and we send them away to the distribution centres.”

Ken said he and his wife always wondered what happens at the distribution centre, so they decided they wanted to find out by taking part themselves.

They enjoyed the experience so much that they plan to go back in the future as well.

“We knew it was such an awesome cause,” Ken said. “It’s a way of spreading God’s love throughout the world… When you are there working [for the project], you feel this is absolutely the right place to be. It’s very worthwhile.”

People still have an opportunity to donate to the Operation Christmas Child Project. If anyone wants to make a donation, they can visit the website at packabox.ca and virtually fill a shoebox for a child in need around the world.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow