Those shoebox appeals.

[manicmonday22]

Dd came home from school today with one of those shoebox appeal things. She wanted to fill up shoebox straight away. Explained that we had to buy new things to put in it. Don't mind doing that. However, I have now noticed that they are also asking for a minimun donation of £2.50 to cover costs etc.
Going to feel really mean not doing it as school has fired up children.

We have done 22 this year.

It really brings home to my children that this may be all some children get at christmas. No shiny toys or ds games.

Mumsnet don't allow it's members to send shoebox appeals, sorry.

We're not doing it - the leaflet came home from school - but it's Operation Xmas Child and I have some issues about the evangelism etc. I have told DS1 that we can pick another charity to give to, instead.

well I am doing one
dd wanted to and tbh I like the idea of doing it as somewhere a teen girl will smile

Yes you must pick another charity

My second cousin twice removed sister-in-law heard in the hairdressers that operation christmas child practice human sacrifice.

I'm joking of course.

But prepare yourself for an awful lot of disinformation about Operation Xmas Child.

We used to do them at the school I work at but stopped last year, partly because we wanted to support a local charity instead and partly because of the disinformation that bubbleOseven speaks of. Run a search on the forum, lots of threads will come up, then you can decide for yourself if you feel so mean about not doing one.

Oh here we go again

I really do not get the point of all the people who get so worked up with the "we won't do it cause it mentions God" rubbish.

I am C of E I do not believe in Allah (but respect the rights of others to if that is what makes them happy) but if my child had nothing I would welcome a shoebox of stuff being sent to them even if it came with a copy of the Koran stuck in it.

Come on people, stick some bits in a box and bring a little bit of happiness to a child somewhere, or if it is beyond you then at least leave alone the people who do do it

Disinformation or not, I don't ever give to religious charities as I'm an atheist, so I won't start now. I don't think there's any doubt that OCC is a religious charity? (Happy to eat my words if I'm wrong)

RunawayPumpkin bloody well said
I love the idea of some child who has nothing getting a box of goodies.

The onlt thing that annoys me is when they specify that it has to be girls' toys and boys' toys.

I might do a gender neutral one this year and see what they say.

They only give out literature if appropriate. The boxes are distributed by local aid workers who work day in and out some of the worst places you can imagine.

If you don't give they will not get anything.

So sit on your high horses and enjoy you christmas over indulgence- they are only children- they will be ok

And when applying for a school for your child just remember that they couldn't possibly go to a church of england one as it will fill them with propaganda.... But it's got an outstanding ofsted...... Oh dear.

ah I am doing a teen girl, but will put a ball and a coupe of neutral things in(well she might be a tom boy) I am so not putting make up in

My dd doesn't go to a chuch school although I a Christian. I think that I may just donate the items to a toddler group I know that sometimes gets involved but doesn't demand the cash aswell.

The girls' toys and boys' toys guide makes sense though surely, to avoid ending up with (probably) loads of girls ones because girls are "easier" to buy for.

Anyhoo, there are shoebox charities who don't tell you what gender or age, you select which one you want to do, it just says to tick which gender and age range your box is for which makes sense for the distributors to know in advance.

I don't really see the religious element as relevant, just because a religious organisation is running the scheme, it doesn't mean they are benefitting, the real benefactors are the children. It's not like giving donations to the church. It's a bunch of small stuff going directly to a kid who has nothing nice in their life whatsover.

About ten years ago my very well off GP friend in Northern Ireland was very surprised when her child brought home one of these shoeboxes from school. Their children had apparently been identified as being in a 'deprived and needy area'!

This was done a few weeks ago, i mentioned i do one or two boxes every year, some people dont like the idea that the kids are preached at before they get their box. Im not religeous at all, but im still going to do it, i like doing it, each to their own.

I do know that boys, especially older boys dont get half as many shoeboxes as girls, so i always do at least one for an older boy, and one for a girl.

I usually put in, hat, scarf, gloves, toothpaste, toothbrush, flannel, soap, sweets, colouring book, felt pens, notebook, biros and some cheap plastic, a ball, little puzzle things etc, sounds a lot, but costs very little

the children do NOT get preached at. Maybe instead of flapping because there might be a connection with the church you might spare a thought for the children that receive these presents.
I am a Rotarian and one of our members goes to Romania to distribute these boxes every year. The town where they do it used to be a steel working place until Ceaucescu fell. Thousands were laid off. Now hundreds of homeless people live on wasteland outside the city, under the old steelworks. They live in shacks, have no running water, can hardly feed their families. Yet they manage to carry on in the most desperate of situations. The Love in a Box, Mustardseed etc boxes will be all their children have received all year. for some it will be the first gift they ever receive.

So yes, dust down your Boden cardigan, eat your waitrose sushi box, drink your starbucks skinny lattes and congratulate yourself at taking a stand against religious charities

and the cash is to cover the cost of shipping, distributing and often paying off corrupt government officials to allow the aid convoys to get to their destinations.

Yes, if it's Rotary it will be fine . We have two members involved in mustardseed and a romanian charity so do it through them but I believe there is a dedicated rotary "love in a box" scheme as well

www.rotary1280.org/shoebox/

If you ladies are really anti anything Church orientated may I encourage you to get involved in your local Rotary club's campaign. We are a secular organisation and all fundraising efforts are run by people like me who give up their time and money to do it. All donations go to the charities in some way or another, whether in shipping costs or goods.

I agree, Fibilou, our Brownie pack do lots every year, does them good to realise not everyone gets a DS for xmas. Who cares if they get a bible, i'm just glad that a youngster will be getting warm woolly things and a few bits of toys, sweets and stationery.

Bit harsh, Fibilou. It's not like there's any shortage of charities to give money/donations to, so why should we go with the American fundamentalist one?

Linkromania was mentioned on the other thread, they do a shoebox appeal too. (Their website is currently giving an 'out of bandwidth' error message, maybe that's a good sign!)

Or last year, our local bookstore was running a scheme to buy Xmas gifts for kids in DV refuges.

Just because we don't want to help one dubious charity, doesn't mean we don't want to help at all...

(that was to your 21:42 post by the way)

the problem is, and this happened last year, is that the boards on here were awash with people saying "don't do the shoeboxes" because a couple of the organisations were mission based. So quite a few people on here decided not to do them at all, even for organisations that are secular. The only people that lost out were the children.

And I find it highly irritating when people claim they are taking the moral high ground when actually it's just a convenient excuse because they don't want to do something