Santa’s Shoebox 2022

This term, the community service portfolio organised a Santa Shoebox drive. 

We started with an assembly about collecting the tags and packing the boxes. On the Christmas tree outside the library, we hung up 56 tags for shoeboxes that Mia had previously ordered from the Santa Shoebox website, and within 3 weeks, all the tags were gone, replaced by loads of packed shoeboxes!

The day before we dropped them off, community service members gathered in the bio lab after school to check the contents of each shoebox. We came across a few incomplete ones, so on the day of drop off, Dr Marguax Rat and I went to the PEP store at 10.30, brought the rest of the supplies, and completed the packing. 

On the 4th of November, during second break, we loaded the shoeboxes onto one of the school buses and took them to the drop-off point at Canal walk. We went up to entrance 10 (on the roof), where 2 Santa Shoebox staff members awaited us; they helped us unload the shoeboxes into trolleys, bringing them down to the ground floor. 

From Canal walk, the shoeboxes will be distributed to poorer communities throughout South Africa and Namibia. We do this to spread the excitement of the holiday, as they may not be able to afford presents. 

The highlights of the last few days were deciding who won the best-decorated shoebox and the moment in the elevators at canal walk when he had a view of the massive collection of shoeboxes! 

All in all, it was a great first project experience, and it would be great to see it run again next year. 

– By Jake