With events restricted due to Covid-19 it's been a tough year for everyone, especially those who raise funds for charity.
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Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child (OCC) have felt the stresses when it comes to covering the cost of shipping their shoeboxes overseas.
The OCC initiative involves volunteers who pack 'six something's' in a shoebox to send to less fortunate children in the Philippines, Indonesia, Madagascar, and Malawi.
The six something's include something to wear, something to love, something special, something for school, something to play with and something for personal hygiene.
Coordinator Kerry Morris said while there were plenty of items donated, they had fallen short with funds to transport the shoeboxes.
"These boxes that are being packed here is fine but the boxes then go to Blacktown and before they're shipped, they basically need $10 per box for shipping," he said.
He said Samaritan's Purse would usually make money from garage sales and concerts, covering a large sum of the shipping.
"We'd get up to around $7000 to pay for the boxes which covers around 700 boxes but the way things have been with Covid and not being able to fundraise, we've fallen short to pay for the transportation of the boxes," he said.
Mr Morris said if there was a chance to get at least half of that sum it would be a big help.
"If you make a shoebox and donate $10 that covers the cost of shipping it and really helps us out," he said.
District coordinator Val Morris said at their first packing day volunteers made 457 shoeboxes, double than what they would normally do in a day.
"We'd usually start in March and hold one each month until our cut off in October," she said.
"But we will have three packing days this year due to Covid and our last one will hopefully be in early October," she said.
At their most recent packing day on Monday, September 21 there were 21 volunteers, Mrs Morris said.
"We'd usually hold them [packing days] in the school holidays because kids are great at packing shoeboxes in their age groups but we decided to keep it outside of school holidays to keep numbers down," she said.
Mrs Morris said volunteers would continue to pack boxes until they ran out of items.
"People keep sewing and putting things in so while ever we've got things, we'll pack," she said.
She thanked the Lithgow Men's Shed who made and donated wooden toys for the shoeboxes.
"We've got plenty of things to fill the boxes but we're hoping people are going to donate so they can go overseas," she said.
Mrs Morris said the OCC initiative was a wonderful opportunity to share our fortune and god's love.
"It's just our opportunity to share god's love with the world.
"We can't go there especially not in Covid-19, but we can still share and help out," she said.
To donate funds or items contact Kerry and Val Morris on 0406 241 616 or email kvmorris2@gmail.com