Photo (l to r): Dawson Billmeier, Karsyn Lampman, Theresa Boeckman and Jake Smith
For 10 years, students at Kuemper Catholic Schools have adopted children from around the world for the holiday season through Operation Christmas Child. But this year, the fifth-grade class has gone above and beyond in making sure that more children than ever got a special surprise on Christmas. Fifth-grade instructor, Theresa Boeckman says in years past, the kids would take a shoebox home and fill it with their family.
One of the fifth-grade students, Dawson Billmeier, says this is his third year of participating in the program, and he sees this as a great way to help others.
Another fifth-grade student, Karsyn Lampman, says she brought in a combination of toys and personal items to give the kids something fun and something they need.
Boeckman says they may not ever know where these boxes have gone, they can be shipped anywhere in the world. But the kids did get to see videos of other children in Central America and Asia, all, she said, who had a big smile on their face. Jake Smith says that he was inspired by those videos.
It took a lot of creativity to find items that fit in a shoe box, but they sent things like socks, Rubik’s Cubes, dolls and much more. Jake says it was fun to put the boxes together and both Karsyn and Dawson say they enjoyed spending time with their families picking out the items. This operation is really an extension of the mission work the students do throughout the year, but the kids add that it is particularly important this time of year to show others they care. And on Christmas morning, each one of these three will wake up and think of the 14 boxes they put together, and they will smile knowing that these children will spend time with their families and their special gifts, just like they are.
