Operation Christmas Child
Operation Christmas Child (OCC) is a project of Samaritan's Purse and last year alone delivered 3.1 million gift-filled shoeboxes to 70 countries around the world.
The idea is quite simple. Find an empty shoebox and put some decorative wrapping on it if you like. Shoeboxes can be picked up at any Canada Safeway store (or call 1-800-30-31-BOX, 1-800-303-1269) Pick one of the three age categories and decide whether your gift will be for a girl or a boy. Fill the shoebox with a variety of gifts and a note or photo of yourself if you would like. Drop your box off at one of the many collection centres by mid-November each year. In order to cover the costs of shipping, a donation of $5 or more would be appreciated.
Randy Pries; Director of Pricing for Reimer Express Lines Ltd has been a very active volunteer in this very worthy cause for six years. 
Mr. Pries was first introduced to OCC when Reimer was asked to participate in the shipping of the shoeboxes in Canada. His efforts have gone beyond helping in the logistics of moving the shoeboxes to major collection centres throughout the country. In January, 2000 Mr. Pries spent one week with a group in Chiapas State in the jungle of southern Mexico helping to deliver the shoeboxes, to the delight of the small children. 
Landing in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the group headed straight into the jungle to visit a total of three villages along the way, often walking where the buses were not capable of going. "We would arrive at the village and separate the children by age group, boys and girls, so that the shoe boxes could be properly given," noted Mr. Pries. He pointed out, "the children would all wait patiently until all the boxes were
handed out, then you could hear the shouts and squeals of joy as the children opened their gifts." The reward was in seeing how the work done in Canada could benefit these children so far away.
Mr. Pries recounts one story of a child who was sitting a short distance away and reading a letter attached to the box. 
Through an interpreter, he found out that the little girl had received her gift from a woman living just outside Winnipeg, Mr. Pries' hometown and the location of Reimer's head office. "The little girl asked if I would take a thank you letter that she wanted to prepare back to Winnipeg to deliver to this women. I had no idea how I was to find this person, but I couldn't say no," recounts Mr. Pries. But find her he did, and the sharing was brought full-circle, "connecting the child's happiness back to Winnipeg."
While there the group also provided basic health care and water filtration systems to the villages.
Reimer's participation in Operation Christmas Child involves providing freight services to move specially painted trailers from the various collection points to the major collection centres. "We can accommodate OCC's requirements on short notice, 52-weeks a year. Our transcontinental service allows this," Mr. Pries pointed out. Reimer moves both empty shoeboxes as well as the final product.
Over the last six years of volunteering for OCC, Mr. Pries observed that the single most important fact is the "impact that one shoebox can make."
