ORRINGTON, Maine — People from all over the region have packed shoe boxes with soaps, shampoos, school supplies and maybe clothing or a small toy and sent them through Operation Christmas Child to needy children all over the world.
“We had a really rough start at the beginning of this year, [and] we went on to collect 6,390” gift-filled shoe boxes, Pete Gorczok, Orrington resident and area coordinator of Operation Christmas Child, said on Tuesday. “We had exactly 500 more than the previous year,” which is a local record.
The items that go into the boxes are items that most people in the U.S. take for granted but are priceless gifts to those who receive them, he said, adding that even the box they are packed in can be considered a treasure.
Gorczok went to the Dominican Republic last February and helped hand out 7,000 of the Operation Christmas Child boxes to children ages 2 to 14. He was able to see firsthand the children’s joy in receiving the gifts.
He recalled meeting one little girl who he said captured his heart.
“Almost every place we went [in the Caribbean island nation], the girls all had these hair trinkets, with balls or barrettes, and there was this one in particular who didn’t have any,” Gorczok said. “When she opened the box, at the very top were four or five packages of hair ornaments. She was just so incredibly blown away by all the things in the box.”
Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization that provides spiritual and physical aid to victims of war, poverty, natural disaster and disease, according to its website.
The area that Gorczok coordinates stretches from Newport to Millinocket, east to Calais and also includes the coastal communities of Belfast and Camden.
“We have one church in Winterport, Winterport Baptist, that collected 440 [boxes] this year, and this is a congregation with about 50 members,” he said.
Church members collect items year-round and each month is designated for the collection of particular items, such as school supplies. They also purchase items at yard sales and discount stores to keep costs low, Gorczok said.
“When we see a small place like this collect so much, it’s so encouraging,” Gorczok said. “This part of central Maine is doing a big part in Operation Christmas Child.”
The shoe boxes are collected in November — the deadline to submit boxes locally was last week — and are shipped to locations around the world. Last year, more than 8 million boxes were shipped to nearly 100 countries, with approximately 5 million originating in the U.S. and the other 3 million from Australia and Europe, Gorczok said.
“The biggest push for this year is for Haiti,” he said.
People from Millinocket, Dover-Foxcroft, Skowhegan, Newport and the Bangor area recently helped fill a tractor-trailer with about 20,000 gift-filled shoe boxes that came from all over the state, he said.
Gorczok and his wife, Harlie, and three sons, Pete, 16, Erik, 10, and Luke, 3, packed eight of the shoe boxes collected locally. Each box is age- and gender-appropriate, for children ages 2 to 4, 5 to 9 and 10 to 14.
Each boy box packed by the Gorczok family included sunglasses, “stuffed animals, a Hot Wheel, a pack of three toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap and wash cloth and notebook, pencils and crayons,” he said. “And the big thing is candy. The kids enjoy it a lot.”
The girl boxes the family packed included a doll, hairbrush and hair accessories as well as the hygiene and school supplies, Gorczok said.
Each family that prepares a box also includes a note from them and a comic book Bible in the language of the needy children.
“One of the big factors is the kids hear about the hope of the Gospel of the Bible,” Gorczok said. “These kids, so many of them don’t have the hopes that we have. They are given an opportunity to hear about something that provides hope.”
Gorczok, a former U.S. Army pilot with 24 years of military experience, retired in 2004, then served on a mission in Acuna, Mexico, for a year and a half before moving to Maine with his family in 2006.
After delivering the boxes to children in the Dominican Republic earlier this year, Gorczok said his passion for Operation Christmas Child grew by leaps and bounds.
“That was absolutely incredible,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for 11 or 12 years, and I’ve never given the boxes to the kids. I was always the guy who collects them. Actually being there and handing them out, it made me see how incredible this ministry was.”