Spread the joy and become a Santa Shoebox Project volunteer

“I have made friends that have turned into family and made a little dent for the better in the world.”

This is Nicole Weier’s take on being a volunteer for the Santa Shoebox Project.

The 43-year-old personal assistant and mum of two from Johannesburg started volunteering in 2015 and is now a coordinator for the Johannesburg flagship drop-off point. This role sees her helping to manage and run the project in Central, North and West Johannesburg.

“I found out about the Santa Shoebox Project in 2014 while googling another project and ended up pledging a few boxes,” she explained.

“When I dropped them off at Rhema Church, I was in such awe of what the team was doing I asked to sign up the next day to volunteer at the drop-off.

“I was so amazed at the love being spread and the magic being created that I joined the team the next year.”

Nicole’s first task as a drop-off volunteer was a checker.

“I made every required item was in the box and that all the items were age appropriate. When I joined the team in 2017, I volunteered in Shoebox First Aid, which is where we add items if any of the eight required items are missing or swap out age-inappropriate items.”

A daycare centre in the middle of Zandspruit informal settlement is where Nicole got her first real taste of the celebration of smiles the project is famous for.

“This was at the end of 2015. The principal was a sweet gogo who just loved looking after the little ones in her care, even though some parents could not pay her.

“The place was neat and the children were happy. We handed out the Santa Shoeboxes and the children’s excitement was through the roof.

“The thing that amazed me the most was some of the children’s excitement for not the toy or clothes or sweets, but the toothbrush and soap. This stayed in my heart.”

Nicole believes the reason the project has gone from strength to strength is the fact that it focuses on the children.

“They are the most important people to Santa Shoebox Project. Also, our amazing donors believe in what we do as much as we do, which is another reason the project has soared over the years.”

The project reached its millionth child in 2020.

As the Santa Shoebox Project’s national sponsorship, marketing and regional manager for Gauteng, North West, Free State, Mpumalanga and Limpopo Margie Kostelac reiterates volunteers like Nicole are at the heart of the Santa Shoebox Project.

“My working background is in the hospitality industry, which I loved, but I was retrenched 16 years ago. I needed to keep busy. One day a friend sent me an email about the Santa Shoebox Project, so I got my mum, who had Alzheimer’s, involved in knitting beanies to donate to the project.

“We filled an apple box with beanies and went to drop them with a woman in Joburg. I was astonished to find the woman’s house filled with shoeboxes and said, ‘it looks like you need help’. The rest is history! That was the start of my journey with the Santa Shoebox Project,” Margie explained.

“Being a volunteer-based organisation, volunteers are a lifeline who keep the various organs of the project running to bring the magic and spread the love. Whether they are donors, team members or drop-off volunteers, simply spending that one hour doing something helps spread that joy even further.”

For Nicole, the celebrations (handing out of shoeboxes) are a highlight of being involved.

“It is amazing to see the joy on the children’s faces. I also love being part of the Santa Shoebox family and meeting amazing people. Believe it or not, one of my other loves is the craziness of drop-off weekend when we get to see the thousands of creative boxes the donors have come up with,” she said.

Being part of something bigger, in whatever capacity, and meeting like-minded people is a big plus of volunteering, according to Nicole.

“This opportunity has opened my eyes to the way many people live and that the simple things we often take for granted are other people’s prized possessions.

“I would recommend volunteering because it opens your eyes to things you wouldn’t otherwise take the time to look at. Also, spending a little time doing something for someone else is like a balm for the soul.”

Apart from her love for and dedication to the Santa Shoebox Project, Nicole and her husband also loom knit and crochet baby items for another organisation that distributes these items to hospitals and clinics for new mothers who have little for their newborns.

If she could volunteer at another organisation, Nicole said it would be a children’s charity.

“Children are our future. That little spark of hope and love you create in that child’s eye could grow to be a great inferno of good when they are an adult.

“I would want to be part of the seed-planting that may make that child grow and be something truly remarkable.”

Volunteering

At the beginning of each year, friends, families, colleagues and community members across South Africa and Namibia put their hands up and offer a few hours per month to share in the Santa Shoebox Project mantra of the Joy of Giving.

What do I need to be a volunteer?

• A friendly smile and a few free hours per month.

• Be organised and reliable.

• Join a team in your area.

• Regular access to a computer, the internet and WhatsApp.

• Access to reliable transport.

• Additional skills needed from time to time include media liaison/PR support, logistical and drop-off support, celebration representative, photographer and admin assistant

For more information/frequently asked questions about volunteering, visit www.santashoebox.org.za/volunteer-my-time or email info@santashoebox.org.za 

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