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Shoe box recipient comes full circle

It was a long time ago, but Foday Kanabom still remembers being handed a shoe box in a West African church when he was about 11 years old.

"It had some crayons, markers and pencils. It had some toy cars in it as well," the 24-year-old St. Catharines man said Thursday. "I had a yo-yo, but I didn't know how to use it until later."

The small gifts were such a memorable treat because they were so rare. Kpanabom's family was displaced during the civil war in Sierra Leone and moved from place to place taking little with them. He said his parents were concerned about providing necessities, not extras. "The main thing you wanted was food to eat," he said.

On Thursday, Kpanabom was helping Niagara Emergency Medical Services and St. John Ambulance pick up 1,178 shoe boxes from schools across Niagara. The boxes, filled by students from 17 elementary and high schools for Operation Christmas Child, will be sent to children in Third World countries. "It was kind of like going full circle for me," Kpanabom said. "I received it, but I saw kids giving it."

Six years ago, Kpanabom's family moved to Canada and settled in St. Catharines, where he spends time working at the YMCA and in security for the Niagara Health System and volunteering, including with St. John Ambulance. His team leader at St. John showed him a shoe box earlier this year, explaining children, groups and businesses fill them with items for children at Christmas. "I smiled at her," he said. "I got one of those before."

He immediately wanted to help with the drive, which is run internationally by Samaritan's Purse, a non-denominational Christian relief organization. "I'd do what I could to help. It made a difference in my life when I received it."

He said he also wants people to know that while some aid from missions never ends up at its destination because of corrupt officials within countries that divert or sell items, that shoe box reached him many years ago. "I know how I felt when I received it and what point in my life I received it," he said.

Kpanabom said the children he saw giving shoe boxes Thursday are probably like the kids who put together his shoe box. The children who receive them will be going through what he went through. The shoe boxes were unloaded at Glenridge Bible Church on Lakeshore Road Thursday afternoon after a caravan of ambulances with lights flashing stopped at schools for pickups. "They were excited, all hyped up," said Melissa Lacroix, president of the Niagara Paramedic Association, of the children.

Ten Niagara EMS paramedics volunteered for the run, as well as four students from Niagara College and six volunteers from St. John Ambulance. Jane Noble, co-ordinator of Operation Christmas Child for St. Catharines and Niagara Falls, said boxes from Ontario go to South America, West Africa and Haiti. Last year, 7.5 million boxes were collected worldwide.

Noble said the shoe boxes help build relationships in communities where Samaritan's Purse meets other needs, such as providing water filtration programs, medical programs and other outreach projects.