Sent Packing

Last Friday and Saturday, Allen, Trish, and an industrious group of volunteers were sent packing! Packing backpacks, that is! The group converged on  Edgewater Alliance Church in Edgewater, Florida to fill about 800 backpacks for sponsored children, plus a slew of backpacks for children who do not yet have sponsors.

The group took over the church’s large lobby area to fill, label, and package each backpack. Sponsors with Manna 4 Lempira mailed in bags filled with toys and fun surprises. Courtney Christian from Jacksonville, Florida brought down 800 bags filled with the school supplies needed for each backpack and 800 bags filled with hygiene supplies for each one. Amanda Lane flew in from Massachusetts to lend two very helpful hands. And Kim Hall made the journey from Atlanta. Kim provided gift bags for any sponsored child whose sponsor didn’t provide one. Kim, Courtney, and Amanda brought friends and family with them to help, as well!

Volunteers paired the bags o’ fun with bags of school supplies and hygiene supplies, and also added additional notebooks, to fill each and every backpack. Besides the bags for sponsored children, between 200-300 backpacks were created for children still waiting for sponsors! Every single child with Manna 4 Lempira will receive a backpack, which has been filled to capacity.

As Allen said, “People stayed on it and kept their heads down. By 6:30, the job was done. The backpacks totally filled the rented Penske truck. Then, on Monday, we delivered them to the hangar where we store them, along with 500 backpacks from Atlanta!”

There are also a number of “starter bags”, which will be loaded onto the container. Those bags will supplement the boxes pastors’ families will receive through Gifts for Gracias. Let the shipping commence!

- posted by Christi