By BECKY CRISSMAN
Over the past few months, Wilcox County Middle School (WCMS) students and faculty have proved that they have big hearts with two extremely successful projects to help those around the world who are less fortunate or are in need.
In November 2009, the WCMS Jr. Beta Club sponsored Operation Christmas Child. The Operation Christmas Child project delivers donated shoeboxes filled with toys, hygiene products, paper, pencils, candy, trinkets, and many other items to needy children around the world. Most of these children have never received any kind of gift, so they are delighted to receive these simple items.
For five days in November, WCMS began each morning with a short video showing what items should or should not go in boxes, how to pack the box, and children who received shoeboxes in the past telling the impact the shoebox made in their lives. Some WCMS students and faculty donated completed boxes ready to be handed to a child, and others donated items to help fill group boxes from homerooms. Susan Stubbs, Jr. Beta sponsor, proudly delivered 104 completed boxes from WCMS to the local collection site. These boxes were taken to the Atlanta area Samaritan's Purse warehouse for sorting and shipping on December 5. Officials there relayed that these 104 boxes would be delivered to children in India and Pakistan.
Many WCMS students and Jr. Beta members began asking what could be done to help Haiti after the devastating earthquake there in January of this year. The Jr. Beta Club decided to sponsor a project called "Buckets of Hope for Haiti." This project involved filling and shipping new five gallon buckets filled with flour, sugar, beans, rice, oil, peanut butter, and pasta to hungry families in Haiti. The cost of filling (if store brands are purchased) and shipping the bucket is approximately $33 per bucket. One bucket of food will feed a Haitian family for approximately one week.
Jr. Beta members voted to use the profits from the sale of Valentines to fill three buckets of food. Additionally, donations were collected in each grade March 1 through March 4 that helped fill another fourteen buckets. Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders eagerly and generously filled collection jars, hoping that their grade would top the others when all the money was collected. The seventh grade edged out the six grade by less than five dollars, and the eighth grade came in a very close third. Almost $500 was collected during this time.
When all food items had been purchased and shipping costs paid, WCMS filled and shipped 17 buckets of food to help feed 17 hungry Haitian families for a week. The total value of this donation is approximately $561.
Way to go WCMS!!
