John B. Marek is a writer, farmer, outdoorsman and recovering economic developer. You can find his books at johnbmarek.com.
The window on the mountain is closed tight today, and the view is misty. We’ve been experiencing some much-needed rain over the past 24 hours. Things got mighty dry here in the fall after a wet spring and typically damp summer. Much of the High Country, including here at the workshack in Wilkes County, has been under a burn ban since October. This is only the second rainfall worth mentioning since Labor Day.
I took advantage of the wet weather yesterday to volunteer a shift at the Operation Christmas Child (OCC) processing facility in Charlotte, along with a few others from New Beginnings Moravian Church. When I stepped away from the economic development world a couple of months ago, one of my goals was to get out and participate in a wider variety of community service work. I thought OCC was as good a place to start as any.
I have participated in the supply end of OCC for many years. The tradition at New Beginnings was that each adult donated a single “wow” gift, and the children were responsible for adding school and hygiene supplies and preparing the boxes. We changed that up a little this year, and each member was responsible for making up one complete box. That actually proved to be a bit more daunting than expected, as it’s been a minute since I’ve had to shop for an 8-year-old boy.
The processing facility is on the south side of Charlotte in what I am told was an old COSTCO. Whatever it was built as, it’s a good-size facility, at least 150,000 square feet by the looks of it. Upon arriving for our shift, we milled about a waiting area for a few minutes before being assigned to a team and taken back to a sorting table. Conveyor lines cross the entirety of the processing space, with dozens of sorting nodes springing from each one. Each node is worked by a team of eight to 10 volunteers, with a qualified supervisor in charge.
After about five minutes of training (it’s not exactly brain surgery) we got to work. Our job as a group was to open each box, check for donations, which we placed in a lock box, make sure there were no “inappropriate” items and that the box contained a reasonable quantity of stuff, seal the box, scan it and put it in a larger box for shipping. Inappropriate items were candy, liquids, toothpaste and scary, militaristic or weaponlike toys. Since our boxes were destined for Peru, there were no special restrictions, but for some areas, culturally sensitive things, like pigs, were also forbidden. We had a bin of replacement toys in case we had to remove something or if the box seemed “light.”
I came across a couple of tubes of toothpaste, some candy canes and a squirt gun, each time gleefully yelling, “CONTRABAND.” The vast majority of the boxes, though, contained precisely what they were supposed to: one age-appropriate wow item such as a toy car, doll or stuffed animal, school supplies like pens, paper, erasers and crayons, and hygiene supplies like soap, toothbrushes, washcloths, combs and brushes. A few also had clothing items or flip-flops.
About an hour and a half into our four-hour shift we were encouraged to take a break and watch a 5-minute video showing how the boxes were shipped and distributed. We had a similar break 90 minutes later. Of course, it wasn’t a Third World sweatshop, so we could take a break to use the restroom or get a drink anytime we wanted.
We were told that during our shift, the facility processed 85,000 boxes. Let me say that again: 85,000 BOXES! OCC is a well-oiled machine doing good work for the disadvantaged children of the world. While there may be legitimate criticisms of Samaritan’s Purse, the organization behind OCC, and its founder, Franklin Graham, you’d have to wallow down deep in the mud to find fault with anything associated with Operation Christmas Child.