WATCH: Church volunteers who send gift-filled shoeboxes every Christmas to needy children overseas are hearing from one former recipient about the impact that their generosity has made in her life.
BURLINGTON — She lifted the lid and saw pink colors and frilly things.
The shoebox filled with gifts arrived at the orphanage where Elena Nicholson lived in the former Soviet Union. In a world where she had nothing, everything in the box was for her.
It changed the young girl’s outlook on life.
The delivery was part of an international Christmas holiday outreach that involves hundreds of church volunteers in Racine County, as well as neighboring Kenosha County and Walworth County.
Now 30 and living in the United States, Nicholson is visiting a Burlington church this weekend to tell the story of how her holiday shoebox found her in despair — and filled her with hope.
“I was at my lowest point. I felt like a nobody,” she said. “It made me feel like a somebody.”
Source: Outside the box: Former orphan finds hope in unexpected gesture of love from strangers