With the coming of the holidays, there are numerous thoughts racing through a teenager’s mind–which side of the family will I hang out with, whose cooking the food, what should I put on my wish list, does everyone know my clothing sizes, will I hang out with my friends during break? With all these questions stirring in the subconscious of our mind, one teacher stands out and prepares the greatest and most ignored question of all: how can I make a change and give to others?
Dr. Staley, PitmanHigh School’s math teacher for Math Analysis and Finite, commits to her annual tradition of hosting a drop-off station over a course of two weeks for Operation Christmas Child, a program funded by Samaritan’s Coin Purse.
Founded in 1970, Samaritan’s Coin Purse is a “non denominational Evangelical Christian organization” that offers different kinds of relief to nations across the globe. While it originally started off as a small organization, it grew to become one of the greatest relief funds in the world.
Its holiday branch program called Operation Christmas Child first started in 1990 when the Romanian Civil War was coming to a close. Couple Dave and Jill Cooke who lived in Wales were watching the television and were appalled by the dangers orphaned children were exposed to. They took a stand by rounding up nine trucks filled of food, supplies, and gifts in shoe boxes throughout their church community to send them over to suffering Romanian children; the program was adopted by Samaritan’s Coin Purse in 1993 and has been on the rise of activity ever since.
Aside from drop-off stations around the globe, Samaritan’s Coin Purse has also made it an option recently to make a gift box online for the price of 25 dollars. With the power of hope and advancement of technology, the organization now can send over 61 million boxes to children in over 135 nations, according to their website.
Dr. Staley helps contribute to increasing these numbers each year with not only the help of her family, but with her students as well.
“The holidays are a time where we must stop thinking about ourselves and start thinking about others,” She told her third period class.
Dr. Staley informs her students on the benefits of assisting Operation Christmas child through a PowerPoint for each class period. She even inspires them with the fact that they can follow their package online to discover which country they landed in.
She isn’t the only teacher working on this charity. English teacher Ms. Silva has also assisted this year by hosting a drop box for the Catholic Student Association from CSU Stanislaus.
“It’s about helping those who are less fortunate,” Silva remarked in a short conversation about the subject.
The power of giving has been strong, with students continuously dropping boxes of gifts in the two-week process. However, it was not quite enough as Dr. Staley had hoped.
By the end of the two weeks, 36 gift boxes were dropped off, a significantly less amount in comparison to previous years when over 100 gift boxes being given over the course of two weeks. Seeing this major change, Dr. Staley came to a decision as of Friday, November 14th.
“I am going to open my class up for one week to holding boxes,” she announced with hopes that more gifts would be pouring in with the extension.
Students are rounding up as much money as they can to purchase new gifts to place into a box of their own. Each box given will go on a vast journey and will eventually reach the arms of a grateful and joyous child somewhere in the world.