Shoeboxes stuffed with gifts headed from Westmoreland to needy kids around the world

A simple comb, a gift from someone in another country, gave Alex Nsengimana something to hold onto in 1995 as a 7-year-old orphan in war-torn Rwanda.

“It was the very first time I ever received a gift in my life,” he said. “On the one side it had a little pick, and on the other side it had a brush. I kept it for three years. Everywhere I went, I had my hair comb in my pocket.”

Today, as a 33-year-old North Carolina resident, he’s passing on that gift, encouraging Westmoreland County residents to prepare shoe boxes filled with toys, school supplies and other necessities for distribution to needy children ages 2-14 in developing countries through the annual Operation Christmas Child charitable holiday campaign.

A shoe box recipient 26 years ago, Nsengimana now is a spokesman for the program. On Friday, he visited campuses of the Champion Christian School in Donegal and in Indian Head, Fayette County.

“It’s a passion of mine, a calling of mine, to be an ambassador for children who have yet to receive a gift that could change their lives, like it changed mine,” he said.

Unity residents Tim and Betsy Kruel began packing shoe boxes in 1993, when the program started. Since then, Operation Christmas Child has provided care packages to more than 188 million children. The Kruels have graduated from overseeing the effort in Westmoreland County to serving as regional area coordinators in Westmoreland and six other counties.

They said their goal this year is to collect 12,501 shoe boxes in Westmoreland. “We add the 1 at the end because we always want to reach one more kid,” said Betsy Kruel, who is a semi-retired registered nurse at Redstone Highlands in Greensburg.

The formal collection will take place Nov. 15-22 at eight drop-off locations in Westmoreland. The county’s shoe boxes will be gathered at the Free Methodist Church of Greensburg then trucked for processing in Baltimore, before heading overseas.

Tim Kruel, an Uber driver, noted, informally, “We’ve already begun collecting boxes. We just store them at our house.”

Under pandemic conditions for the first time last year, the shoe box collection went on unhindered. Betsy Kruel noted volunteers practiced social distancing, wore masks and, depending on the location, could come outside to accept boxes from donors’ vehicles.

She pointed out the shoe boxes have to pass through customs, so items that aren’t allowed include food, liquids, candy and any item with an expiration date. Also prohibited are any articles with a camouflage design or military theme.

The most needed gifts are personal hygiene products and school supplies.

In 2013, the Kruels were able to deliver boxed gifts in person to children in the Philippines.

“It was an amazing experience, to see their joy,” Betsy Kruel said. She recalled one boy who was elated to discover a bundle of pencils in his box: “He grabbed them and threw them up in the air and said to the whole room of kids, ‘Look, I got pencils.’”

Without such donations, she said, children “may use stubs of pencils and pass them around.”

Another boy was excited to receive gloves because the handlebars on his bicycle lacked grips to protect his hands from the hot metal.

With batteries in short supply in developing countries, Tim Kruel said, “Anything that’s solar-powered is perfect, a calculator or a flashlight.”

“We always like to include a ‘wow’ item, a stuffed animal or anything they can put on right away, jewelry or sunglasses,” Betsy Kruel said. “We like the box to be exciting as well as useful.”

Tim Kruel has included toy cars he crafted in his wood shop.

The shoe box program is operated by Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational Christian organization that has provided aid to people around the world who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease or famine.

Children who receive the shoe boxes also are presented with a booklet on the Christian faith and have an opportunity to attend a 12-week Bible study program.

Betsy Kruel noted, “It’s up to the children to come to the outreach.”

Nsengimana’s life was shattered in 1994, when his grandmother and uncle were killed just yards away from him — among hundreds of thousands who were slaughtered in brutal tribal genocide that targeted Rwanda’s Tutsi minority.

Nsengimana fled with other relatives, living at times in the hills and for a time in a refugee camp. He narrowly escaped death more than once, including when a man’s gun jammed as he had the boy in his sights.

Eventually, Nsengimana was placed in the overcrowded orphanage where, the following year, he received his shoe box.

With safety restored and conditions much improved, he has been able to return to Rwanda several times, visiting with his older sister. In 2017, he was able to help deliver shoe boxes to the same orphanage and, through a reconciliation process, met the imprisoned man who had slain his uncle.

“Those seeds that transformed my heart came in a little box I received as a 7-year-old who was living in an orphanage and hopeless,” Nsengimana said. “That is the type of message we want children to get when they receive a shoe box gift — to be reminded that they matter, that someone cares.”

To find local shoe box drop-off locations and hours, visit samaritanspurse.org beginning the first full week of October and select Operation Christmas Child under the “What We Do” heading. Visitors to the site also can make a donation and have volunteers create and send a shoe box on their behalf.

They’ll also find guidelines on what items may be included in a box and a tool for tracking where their donated box winds up.