Operation= Shoebox??!

It all started years ago, somewhere between ages eleven and fifteen, my Mother started collecting shoe boxes. She has always been a little eclectic, maybe borderline hoarder, but with an inclination for organized hording. She has always had a knack for sale shopping, and would stock up on a lifetime supply of the most random things you could think of. Living room furniture because storage for canned goods, boxed of noodles and granola bars that she had doubled and tripled coupons on, in order to leave the store with them owing her money, instead of the other way around. With a family of six, who could blame her? She did the best she could, and her best kept us fed and secure.

It goes without saying, that when boxed of 5 cent pencil sharpeners started showing up by the hundreds, totes of small toys from the 70% off clearance rack, crates of plain color spiral bound notebooks, and shoes boxed by the dozen - with no shoes to go with them- started showing up... well, it was "just another day at the house."

My mother has always had a kind, giving heart. She makes people's lives better in the only way she knows how - the practical stuff. When someone is ill and can not take care of their family because they are recovering, she will make them a weeks worth of food to feed the family. If someone needs a place to stay, she always makes room in the house to accommodate and keep them out of the cold. She will feed you if you walk in the door hungry, and if you don't she will make you some gourmet chocolate treats, simply because this is who she is and what shoe does.

She is the kind of person who will get up first thing in the morning, go to the local grocery stores, pick up the things for the gleaners and take them to the local soup kitchens. She has been known to volunteer at the soup kitchens, as well, and make sure that the things she is bringing do not go to waste, as well as that they have made something that is tasty and nutritious.

My Mother volunteers at community gardens and does all the hard work that nobody else really wants to do. She shucks the beans, pulls the weeds, tills the soil, mulches and mows. She has been on the volunteer fire departments, a forest fire fighter, police dispatch, and even worked at a paper mill to provide for us kiddoes'. When I think about this woman, she is mighty impressive.

Back to the accumulating shoes box collection that was steadily growing in our garage. Did I mention the plethora of school supplies, small toys, soaps, wash cloths and stickers? Well, this collection started growing. It started migrating to the dresser we kept in the garage, on top of the dresser and encroaching onto the canning jar shelf. It seemed to be exploding into totes we did not even know existed.

Over the next 5 months, the collections started growing, the garage got more and more full, until it looked like a warehouse of totes, full of what appeared to be a hodge-podge of more "stuff"

About October, the reason behind all these odds-and-ends came to fruition. We got home from school one day, my three siblings and I came in to the house and found all the totes and shoe boxed strewn across the living room floor - Mother sitting in the middle of the hurricane of supplies, lovingly wrapping wash cloths in rubber bands - deep in concentration. Little did we know, this was the beginning of something much, much bigger for her.

That year, I believe she packaged 120 or so shoe boxes with school supplies, stuffed animals, combs, tooth brushes, stickers, toy cars, balls, dolls and just about anything else one could think of - all to be sent off to a collection site to be distributed to some unknown place in the world where children have absolutely nothing.

This has become something that she has done every year since. She gathers supplies, and has little "shoe box packing" parties with my daughter now, teaching her what needs to go into which box for which age group and letting my little one decide which toys the child who will receive the box will get. It is a beautiful, heart-warming bonding experience for them both, and makes on huge impression on my little girl to have such a beautiful example of generosity and love in her life.

Something I have noticed, as I have grown, become older and started paying attention, is that my Mother has always had this love and caring for the less fortunate - even when we were the less fortunate- she has always made a way to take care of those who have/had less than us. She has always made a way for us, where there has been no way, and she has always gone out of her way for others, making a way to make it happen for them as well. She doesn't have to know them, and she doesn't have to take credit - she does what she does out of pure love, and caring for other people.

This seems to have trickled down the family line, at least as far as the girls in or family go. We each have our own niche, but it is a branch-off of the example set in front of us growing up. We may have had hand-me-down undies as children, but the neighbor down the street from us, as adults will not go without diapers and a home cooked meal (my elder sister) the local hospitals will not go without hundreds upon hundreds of quality home-made cloth masks - nor will anyone in the neighborhood - as my younger sister sits tirelessly at her sewing machine. Homeless people with their signs may not get cash from me, but they will get a bag of food/hygiene supplies and a tent, if needed. If there are children, coloring books and crayons. We each have out own area, as we can manage, and by the example my Mother sets, we all live fulfilling lives, knowing that some day - some time- maybe we can make a dent in depression, and bring joy. Maybe we can bring life where there was no life to be had. Maybe we can bring love and caring to someone who has lost hope.

It is a beautiful thing, when my little girl comes up to me, eyes wide with caring and love and hands me one of her favorite toys, or toy collection and says, "Mom, I want to give this to a Christmas Child" so we lovingly make sure it is in mint condition, cleaned and sanitized and present it to Grandma. The sacrifice made by a nine year old, is a stunning testimony of the example set before her by a loving Grandmother.

It all stems back to my Mother. Her shy smile, her humility, beauty and love. it all comes back to this. She makes the world a better place, one shoe box at a time, one example and one individual legacy at a time.