“Tri-City kids give back to Operation Christmas Child - Tri-City Herald” plus 2 more |
- Tri-City kids give back to Operation Christmas Child - Tri-City Herald
- Runner crosses country to keep kids away from drugs, gangs - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
- Phoenix BMXers to organize DC shoe burning - ESPN.com
| Tri-City kids give back to Operation Christmas Child - Tri-City Herald Posted: 09 Nov 2010 05:42 AM PST A few years ago when Treavor Macduff, his wife Jessica, holding newborn Benjamin, and their children from back left, Maggie, 9, Caleb, 11, Sam, 2, Abby, 6 and far right Hiwot, 8, began filling shoe boxes with gifts for Operation Christmas Child, two of their adopted children Tsega, 11, front left, and Addis, 13, front center, mentioned they remembered receiving them as orphans in Ethiopia. The family puts together from four to six boxes a year. Operation Christmas Child, started in 1990 by Dave and Jill Cooke of Wales, is a program in which people from all over the world pack shoe boxes with toys, medical supplies, food, and clothing as Christmas gifts for children in war torn and impoverished countries.  RICHLAND -- Thousands of families in the Tri-Cities drop off gifts for the poorest of the poor every Christmas at Bethel Church in Richland. The donations go to Operation Christmas Child, which organizers call "the world's largest Christmas project." Packing boxes to be sent to children in drought-stricken, war-torn or famished regions around the world has become part of the season's joy for many in the area. But it means even more to five local children. The children from two families -- one in Pasco, one in Richland -- were once orphans in dire circumstances. Back then, they received boxes from the operation. Now they send them. Christmas in Ethiopia A couple of years ago, Tsega Macduff, now 11, and his sisters Hiwot, now 8, and Addis, now 13, were dropping off gifts at Bethel with their adoptive father, Trevor Macduff. As Addis saw the gift-wrapped boxes pull away in a truck, she realized she had seen this kind of gift before, at the Kidane Mehret Children's Home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, five years ago. Addis, Tsega and Hiwot lived at that orphanage for a year before Trevor and Jessica Macduff adopted the three siblings in 2006. On Christmas Day 2005, the children at the orphanage were called together. Gifts had arrived. More than 100 children lived in the big building, Tsega said. The orphanage's website says that 150 live there now. When his name was called, he stepped forward and received a gift to the cheers of the other children, Tsega said. The box from Operation Christmas Child contained a small toy car, a foam model airplane and a few practical items. "It was very special," he said. "It was my first time getting that kind of surprise." Addis also remembers exactly what was in the box she got that year. "There were color crayons, brushes and a little doll," she said. "I never, ever in my life had those things." The boxes made that Christmas stand out for these children to this day. "I was thankful and happy," Tsega said shyly. "I didn't know somebody actually cared about us," Addis said. "I couldn't sleep." Ukrainian orphanage A world away from East Africa and a few years before, a young girl celebrated the first Christmas of her life in a Ukrainian orphanage, thanks to Operation Christmas Child. Svetlana Schweiger, now a 16-year-old sophomore at Richland High School, lived in an orphanage in the Crimea region when she was 7 years old. Her younger sister Valentina, now 14, lived there too. They and the other orphans had performed a special dance for the holiday and then they "all sat in a big circle under the tree," Svetlana said. "I was just so excited." She was excited because clearly something special was in the air. But although it was Dec. 25, she didn't know what was about to happen. "I didn't know about Christmas," Svetlana said. She opened the box, still not knowing exactly what it all meant. Then she realized it was a present just for her. "I never had stuff to myself," she said. More than eight years later, she not only remembers what was in the box, but she still has some of the presents. But it wasn't until last year that she realized the boxes her adoptive mother, Kathy Schweiger, put together every year were going to the same group that made her first Christmas possible. Kids helping kids Operation Christmas Child is organized by the Christian international relief organization Samaritan's Purse. Each year, the relief group collects nearly 8.5 million boxes in North America, Australia and western Europe and sends them to children in more than 100 countries, said Jennifer Butler, the group's spokeswoman. The relief group, whose main mission is to deliver life-saving aid to developing countries, war zones and disaster areas, started the Christmas operation in 1993, Butler said. Collections at Bethel Church began the following year, said Tricia MacFarlan, area coordinator for Samaritan's Purse in the Tri-Cities. Boxes are shipped to a collection hub in Denver, where the packages are inspected for breakable or culturally sensitive items. Barbie dolls wearing skimpy bathing suits aren't considered suitable toys for children in Iraq, for example, Butler said. Last year, the group began offering a tracking system. The group asks that a $7 donation to cover shipping is included with the box. If that donation is made online, the sender can print out a label with a tracking number and see where the box went. Some local children know exactly what kind of person the gifts go to already. "It's really fun picking stuff," Addis Macduff said. "I usually pack what girls like." Similar stories:
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| Runner crosses country to keep kids away from drugs, gangs - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Posted: 09 Nov 2010 03:48 AM PST John Radich has battled 100-degree heat, dehydration and truckers in a quest to run across America. "It's been an adventurous run," Radich, 56, of Monrovia, Calif., said Sunday as he stopped in the South Side. Averaging 35 to 40 miles a day, he has logged nearly 3,000 miles since leaving the Santa Monica pier in California on the Fourth of July. He said he hopes to reach Atlantic City, N.J., by Thanksgiving after running about 3,700 miles. Radich is making The Trans USA Run for The Way to Happiness Foundation, a nonprofit group established by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology. Radich said his ultra marathon has raised about $100,000 for the foundation. "We get kids off drugs and away from gangs," he said. Radich's route traces Route 66 to Chicago and Route 30 to New Jersey. He is either supported by a crew of runners or a car or pushes a three-wheeled cart laden with water, food, a sleeping bag and tennis shoes. He lives on energy drinks, cranberry juice, nuts, fruits, and peanut butter and bagels. At 6-foot-2, he weighs 155 pounds, having lost 15 pounds so far. "The most challenging obstacle was running through my own state of California through the Mojave Desert," he said. "It never dipped below 115 (degrees), and the hottest it got was 122." Radich said he was so dehydrated once in Texas that he urinated blood. After drinking more liquids and taking a lot of salt and potassium, he was able to continue after one or two days. He recalled jumping off the road in the rain a few times along a narrow section of Route 66 in Oklahoma. "I'm not going to argue with a 10,000-pound truck," he said. The most scenic stretches of his trip are Flagstaff, a Navajo Indian reservation and Ohio. Yes, Ohio. "I just fell in love with those red barns in Ohio," he said. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Phoenix BMXers to organize DC shoe burning - ESPN.com Posted: 09 Nov 2010 07:51 AM PST [+] Enlarge  Courtesy of Psychic Flying MonkeyFlyer for the Great DC Shoe Burn. Phoenix, Ariz. area BMX local Jason Ryan, of The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition, has decided to take a unique stand against the construction of what will be Phoenix's fifth skatepark. In December, Ryan is planning a "The Great DC Shoe Burn" to protest the barring of BMX bikes from what will become Phoenix's fifth skatepark. The park, currently under contract by the City of Phoenix, is, according to Ryan, being funded with a $50,000 donation from the Rob Dyrdek/DC Shoes Skate Plaza Foundation. "The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition has confirmed that the contract between the foundation and the City of Phoenix states that the city must ban kids who ride bikes from the new skatepark when it opens," says Ryan. Although Dyrdek's skate plazas are technically designed for skateboarders, the obstacles within the plazas serve similar needs to BMX street riders, who utilize ledges, stairs and handrails in much the same way as street skateboarders. Rather than appeal the decision with the City of Phoenix, Ryan decided to take his protest to the site of the planned skate plaza. "In light of DC's title support of this foundation and their discriminatory activities, The Bike, Board and Blade Coalition will be hosting a giant burning of DC shoes, apparel, banners and stickers at the site of the planned skatepark," he says. According to Ryan, BMX bikes are not legally allowed in any of the four public skateparks located in Phoenix. "Phoenix BMX riders have attended city council and parks and recreation board meetings, endured extensive talks with parks and recreation officials, written letters and e-mails to officials and staged protests at Phoenix skateparks only to be wholly ignored by the city leadership," he says. A park designed specifically for BMX bikes is located in nearby Chandler, Ariz. The Chandler Bike Park does not allow skateboards. To date, the Rob Dyrdek Foundation, in conjunction with DC Shoes, has aided in the development and construction of skate plazas throughout the U.S., including the world's first legal skate plaza, located in Dyrdek's hometown of Kettering, Ohio. Bicycles are currently not permitted in any Dyrdek-funded skate plazas. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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