Operation Christmas Child

As you have probably worked out by now, here at the Make Cafe we like to get behind good causes. Operation Christmas child is the chance to make a child in an underprivelaged country smile just like your kids do on Christmas morning!

They get people from all over the world to pack a shoe box full of gifts for a child and then they deliver them! They also film the kids receiving them and it is enough to bring you to tears! You can see many of the videos here: http://video.samaritanspurse.org/channel/operation-christmas-child/

So we have 30 boxes at The Make Cafe that we would like to fill up and we need your help!! We only have 2 weeks to get this done, so we have to work quickly. Miriam from over at Create Hope Inspire and Treena from Creative Mama have kindly volunteered to help us in this mission and have come up with some great ideas on what we can do and are going to be available at the cafe to show you how to make some amazing things to pack into the boxes

How you can help:

1) Come to the Make Cafe and make some items for our boxes with Treena & Miriam
2) Donate an item for our boxes
3) Postage costs! 

1) Make a Difference @ The Make Cafe
Treena & Miriam will be at the cafe on the following day's & times and will have all the supplies to make up some lovely items to go into the boxes! 

Monday 10am (14th & 21st Oct)
Thursday 1pm-2pm  (17th & 24th)
Thursday 7pm (17th & 24th)
Friday 10am (18th & 25th)

They will be showing you how to make these items

Printed/applique t-shirt 

Bring a t-shirt in childrens sizes and decorate it using our fabric scraps

Hair ties:

Covered buttons for hair ties  (Buy buttons to cover with scrap fabric) 

Zip Pencil Case (use scrap fabrics and a zip)

Washi tape pencils (bring coloured pencils/normal pencils and decorate)

Drawstring bags (use scrap fabrics)

Felt masks/ crowns (use felt and scrap fabric/elastic)

Tic Tac Toe game boards (scrap fabric and buttons)

Chalk Cloth mat (scrap fabric and chalk cloth)

2) Donate an item for our boxes
As you know we love handmade and there is nothing more special than a child receiving a gift made with love! We know that you our lovely customers make the most amazing things and if you feel you could donate something handmade or just an item needed for the box, we would love it if you could post it to us! 

The Make Cafe 
355 Riccarton Road
Christchurch
80241

The types of items needed are listed below along with some ideas. Each box has a designated age and is either a boy or girl box. (Obviously the older kids are the hardest to fill and the most needed)

Boys/Girls- ages for boxes

2-4 years old

5-9 years old

10-14 years old

6 things to light up the world of a child in need

NEW and UNUSED ITEMS 

SOMETHING TO LOVE

bears, dolls, soft toy

SOMETHING FOR SCHOOL

pencils, sharpeners, erasers, colouring pencils, notebook, mini puzzles, tape, chalk, watercolor paint, oragami kit, measuring tape.

SOMETHING TO WEAR

underwear, tee-shirts, caps, socks,  gloves, scarf, sunglasses, bandanna, masks, hankies.

SOMETHING TO PLAY WITH

tennis balls, bouncy balls, marbles, picture books, matchbox cars, jump rope, finger puppets, princess wands, toy animals, balloons, spinning tops, musical toys- shakers, bells, triangle, harmonica, duplo, lego, rubix cube, chess and checkers, slinky, yo-yo, o & x's.

SOMETHING FOR PERSONAL HYGIENE

soap, toothbrush, washcloths, tissues, hair ties, clips, brush+comb

SOMETHING SPECIAL

cards, photos, decorating kits, activity books, sticker sheets, princess crown, bead necklaces

3) Postage costs! 

Finally each box costs $9 to post, we would love to be able to post all 30 boxes out but we will need generous donations to get this to happen! So we have set up a product for you to be able to purchase postage online for an operation Christmas Child box! There are 30 products available and we hope they all go! 

Donate for postage here

Thank you for all your help! If you think you would like to get together with a group of friends to make up some items for one of our boxes please let us know we would love to support you!