This Reminds Me

You know those number/word puzzles that are so much fun to do?  The ones that show the significance of a number?  Like:

88 = P.K.  (88 = Piano Keys)

200D = F. P. G. I. M. (200 Dollars for Passing Go in Monopoly)

3 = B.M. : S.H.T.R (3 = Blind Mice:  See How they Run)

Well, I have a new number/word puzzle in that genre.  And its number is very significant.

117 = S.B. – F. R. K. T. C.

Can you guess it?

Give up?  Okay.

117 = Shoe Boxes – For Real Kids This Christmas

Thanks to generous friends, 117 real kids will be getting shoe box gifts this Christmas.  Eight of the boxes feature tracking labels, so we’ll even know where those eight boxes are distributed.  Over all the years, we’ve known where only one box was gifted – in 1995 to the “Family Prosenc” in Trovlje, Slovenija.  Since then, we’ve been careful about not including a return address.  We want no resources expended on thank you notes.

The breakdown for this year:

Our box breakdown for 2009:

And how we got to 117:

Look at this mess!  The fabulous Women on Wednesday class to which I belong came over instead of conducting bible study to help organize and begin packing.  I love those women.  Truly. Sure, the girls and I buy stuff all year long – but we never bought all this.  Most gifts – crayons, boxes of unopened Happy Meal toys, T-shirts, etc. – arrived from friends at work, often anonymously.  I literally don’t know what we have until I open the storage cabinets, slice open the boxes and start pulling it all out.   Other gifts arrived from long-time friends like Shelley, who had boxes delivered straight to our house. The generous folks who sent toys, school supplies, clothing items, etc. – and/or money for shipping (GREATLY appreciated!) – they know who they are, and I won’t embarrass them here by calling them out. They know Who knows, and that’s all that matters.

Dana and Dorothy D, performing the un-glamorous job of opening packs of underwear and socks, rolling them tight and placing individual pairs in Ziploc bags with all the air squeezed out.  We treat any cloth “anything” like this, to keep the item clean, take up less space and provide a gift of the Ziploc bag.  Doing this is not quick.  This.  Takes.  For.  Ever.

My girls know:  All non-chocolate Halloween candies extorted – er – collected plus all gum goes into the boxes.  We also buy a load at Wal-mart the day after Halloween, which Hannah bagged the same day.  Generous friends gifted more later, so Brook and Dorothy N quarter-filled sandwich-sized Ziploc bags to go into the boxes.  Most boxes got two or three small candy bags.

Cutting strips of toothbrushes apart for individual packing…again, not glamorous,  but necessary.  Thanks, Lynne, for being so sharp!

The son of friend Renee – Arthur – has been coming over on Saturday for a few years to pack.  Actually – he was our inspiration before he was old enough to pack.  His sister Allison would walk around the boy gifts asking aloud, “Now, what would Arthur like?”  That’s a box of knitted stocking caps, each made  by Keith’s mom, and each Ziploc’ed with the air squeezed out.  We had enough for every child to get one.  I used to stress about those caps going somewhere really hot, like Africa, before I was told by a member of the delivery team, “Oh, no, the kids love there love them.  Keeps their heads from sunburning when they’re picking.”

This year, Arthur brought his friend Tim (left).   Arthur’s (wonderful) mother Renee is pictured on the right, Ziploc’ing T-shirts.  Does your church have leftover VBS shirts?   Does your employer have some shirts moldering on a dusty shelf?  Those are prime box prizes!  Renee and her kiddos also haunt the 75% off sales at the Target Dollar Spot.

117 boxes – Yes, a record number (previous high was 95 in 2007), but it’s never been about the number.  Never. It’s always been about doing as many as we were supposed to do.

What we learned this year:

-  The Container Store has the best boxes – period.  Sturdy, thick heavy clear plastic with close-fitting lids that snap tightly.    They’re also the most pricey – but we caught a sale with an extra 30% off and free delivery to the store (plus Upromise credit.)   Made them pennies more expensive that the cheapies.  I bought 35.  I wish I’d bought 100.

-  Before you buy a box – test it.  Does the lip snap tightly?  Is the plastic rigid enough to hold water, which is the most commonly-observed use for the boxes?  We had some donated this year that were really skuzzy.  The plastic was flimsy and the lids had virtually no tension.  Rachel wondered if they’d actually withstand the trip overseas.  So we decided to use them to sort/store gifts and quit using them to pack.

-  My WOW friend Linda figured out that pre-packing crayons, a bag of candy and a Christmas greeting (4″ x 6″ photo with message) in boxes was a good use of time as everyone else Ziploc’ed  cloth materials, pulled price stickers, etc.  Dang.  Why didn’t we ever think of that before?  So handy to grab an already-started box with those gender-neutral items you’re sure to need.

Samaritan’s Purse hopes/expects to distribute 8M shoe boxes this year.  Compared to 8M – 117 is nothing, like .000014625%.  But the thing is – those 117 boxes will go to real kids.  With real faces.  And real hearts, ready to hear the true Christmas story.  The boxes don’t materialize out of thin air.  If they’re not packed and shipped – then the kids don’t get them.

117 = S.B. – F. R. K. T. C.

It’s that simple.

And that significant.

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