First Time Doing the Shoebox Appeal

Shoebox Appeal, a photo by rachlyf on Flickr.

Ever since I saw the booth on campus last year, decked with beautifully wrapped shoeboxes, I decided that I would participate (at least once) in the appeal. And that was just what I did.

The annual shoebox appeal is where people place items in decorated shoeboxes, be they food, books, toys, clothes or snacks. They will then be sent off alongside many other goodie-filled shoeboxes to less fortunate children in various different countries. This year they will go to Romania.

For some children, this would be the only time they receive gifts for Christmas. KAOs, short for Kids Action Overseas, is the society on campus that acts as the middleman to collect the boxes.

Most of my friends who are from the UK said that being a 'Shoebox Santa' was part of their school activities. It reminds me of the Hamper Project that my secondary school holds every year.



Ta-da! My first ever shoebox made; I'm really satisfied. Squint and you should be able to see most of the stuff I'd put inside. Otherwise give it a guess. I wrote a bilingual message in the card; I can only hope that Google Translate didn't make any mistakes with the Romanian language. Well, I've given mine to that booth now. If the translation isn't accurate, at least it would be laughable.

Oh, what do you know! It's already December and it has not started snowing yet! *touches wood* I can tell now that it's going to be a much better winter experience than the five months of prolonged bitter cold last year. *touches wood* Besides, the previous year was the worst one in history so how bad can this year get? *knocks on wood ferociously*

I better lay this down to rest or I'll be ritually tapping on my wooden table after each sentence I type. One must be careful not to jinx oneself with famous last words.