Jack McDuffie, Special to the Bladen Journal

With Christmas quickly approaching, the elves at Bladen Community College are busy preparing gifts for the less fortunate. Groups around the campus have been collecting gifts for several seasonal projects.

The Sigma Kappa Delta English Honors Society chose Operation Christmas Child as its project for the season.

Operation Christmas Child, a mission project of Samaritan’s Purse International, provides shoe boxes (or similar plastic containers) filled with gifts of school supplies, toys and personal items for children in Third World countries. Fellowship Bible Church in Elizabethtown is coordinating the effort in Bladen County this year.

The Sigma Kappa Delta began its drive on Oct. 25 and collected more than 30 shoe boxes of gifts for the campaign in about two weeks. Boxes were collected for three age groups, according to instructor Felisa Williams, who along with instructor Twyla Davis is spearheaded the effort at BCC.

Each box contained items age and gender appropriate, Williams said.

“Literature in the native language of the child will be included in the boxes before they are shipped to their final destination,” Williams said.

The Sigma Kappa Delta national organization recommends that its units participate in at least two community service projects each year. In past years the group has sponsored a tutoring program, collected items to send to soldiers in combat areas, and in the shoe box project several years ago.

In another project, BCC’s Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) program is collecting gifts for the residents of Cherry Hospital, a 284-bed inpatient psychiatric facility located in Goldsboro.

The project is focusing on providing primarily personal items for the residents.

On Nov. 30, the college agreed to “adopt” a family in Operation Bladen County Christmas, a multi-agency project spearheaded by Bladen County United Way to provide Christmas gifts to needy families in the county.

According to Rhonda Weaver, executive director of Bladen County United Way, the project hopes to provide Christmas gifts to more than 200 needy families.