Eight-year-old Ella Lipham didn’t want toys for her birthday.
Not this year, and not last year.
Instead, she turned her November birthday party into a packing party, stuffing shoeboxes with goodies for children around the world. Last year, she collected more than 100 boxes. This year, the total tally came in just over 200.
“I was thinking, well, I have a bunch of stuff, and I know there are a lot of needy kids, so I really, really wanted to give some of that away,” Ella says. “So I sorted through my room, what I want and what I want for OCC.”
OCC stands for Operation Christmas Child — a cause the second-grader has made her own. And she hasn’t had her fill yet. Next year, she aims to collect 300 boxes.
Operation Christmas Child is a project of the Christian nonprofit Samaritan’s Purse. Each year, the organization collects shoeboxes full of hygiene items, school supplies, toys and candy for children around the world.
The project is also one of Christian evangelism.
“Every child who receives the shoebox hears the gospel of Jesus Christ after they receive the shoebox,” says Mary Jane Smith, an OCC coordinator for the Tucson area. As of Dec. 21, the Tucson area had donated about 14,800 shoeboxes.
For Ella, it all started in the summer of 2014 at a fine-arts camp, where in addition to preparing for a performance, the kids packed shoeboxes.
“I was like, ‘Oh, I really want to do this,’ and just God spoke to my heart and I wanted to do it,” Ella says.
Her Nov. 19 birthday falls in the midst of the OCC collection period, says her father, Bill Lipham. Both he and mom Judy Lipham encouraged their daughter but didn’t push.
“I’m at least enough of a veteran mother to know that if she is excited about something, wait 20 minutes and it might pass,” Judy says. “I’m not going to discourage it, but I was like, ‘We’ll see if she’s really this excited closer to her birthday when she could be getting presents.’”
She was. This was no whim. Ella wanted to go big. They wouldn’t pack 50 shoeboxes; They would pack 100.
At her seventh birthday party, volunteers packed 75 boxes at the family’s church, Emmanuel Baptist Church. Online donations through the Operation Christmas Child website pushed them past the 100-box marker.
Again, Judy put no pressure on her only child.
“After the party last year I said, ‘I’m not going to force you to do it again,’” she says. “‘If you want to, we can do it. If not, we can talk about Pump It Up or something. But she’s driving this train.”
Ella’s determined compassion comes despite struggles of her own.
As a 3-year-old, she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes after her body began to shut down before preschool one day. Now, she deals with blood tests about 10 times a day and insulin pump changes every three days. She also helps her mother when Judy’s rheumatoid arthritis flairs up. Ella is a miracle. Judy thought the disease would prevent her from having children.
Still, her daughter struggles with her own health issues.
“I’m used to it, but I wish I didn’t have diabetes,” Ella says. “It stinks.”
Some days, she can forget she has it. Rarely does she let it define her.
“This is not what her life is about,” Judy says. “She has something else to focus on.”
And that’s helping others.
More than 100 people showed up this year to pack boxes at Ella’s school, Desert Christian Schools. Some brought their own supplies, boxes and $7 to cover shipping. Others just came to pack supplies donated by the Liphams and Smiths, who connected with Ella after giving an OCC presentation at her school.
“Ella, she is such a sweet, sweet little gal, and her mother and father are too,” Mary Jane says. “It’s just so wonderful to see a little heart so giving for children, and that’s contagious, because so many of her friends are doing it.”
At this year’s party, three straight hours of packing produced 176 shoeboxes, and monetary and online donations bumped the total over 200. Ella also sent out a letter asking for financial donations to help cover the $1,400 needed for 200 shoeboxes.
To meet 2016’s goal of 300 shoeboxes, packing and shopping will have to begin long before Ella’s November birthday party.
But for Ella, it’s worth it.
“A simple notebook and a pencil can mean the difference between an education or not, and we take that for granted,” says Judy. “Ella and I were just talking earlier that this is something somebody her age can do. It’s not that tough. But it’s like she has figured out this is her little corner of the world she can make better.”
Besides, having tons of presents is overrated.
“Well, if I got lots of presents, then my room would probably be cluttered with presents,” she says. “And I believe there’s a Bible verse that says it’s better to give than to receive.”
Someday she hopes to meet the kids who receive her gifts. She says she feels excited and joyful when she watches videos of kids around the world receiving shoeboxes.
“I wish I was there to have fun with them,” she says. “To play tag or maybe tickle them.”
