Moms group teaches children the importance of giving

Moms group MOPS (Moms of pre-schoolers), and Moms Next of Sweetwater County bought, gathered and packaged up shoe boxes stuffed with toys and hygiene products Thursday.

The toy-stuffed shoe boxes were sent to children-in-need overseas, some in hard-to-reach locations. The mom's were taking part in an annual international project called Operation Christmas Child. The project was started in 1993, by Samaritan's Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization. Since 1993, the project has delivered Christmas care packages to more than 124 million children in more than 150 countries. This was the first year MOPS took part in the world-wide project and hope to continue.

"We as a women's group decided to jump in and do this," MOPS co-coordinator Hannah Lucero said. "We thought this would be a good service project for the moms, because we have little kids and a lot of us want to teach our kids the importance of giving and not just getting at Christmas time."

Lucero said she wanted her kids to understand there are kids that don't get presents for Christmas. Moms in the group wanted to teach their kids as well, and enjoyed the shared family experience.

"And we have little kids, so it's easy to buy for little kids, because we already know what to buy and what they like," Lucero said.

MOPS mom Brittan Vitosh enjoyed sharing the experience with her kids and used the experience as a learning tool.

"This is kind of special because you can do it with your kids," Vitosh said. "I have another two-year-old little girl, so we went by and she picked out things that she likes and that she would think another little kid would like, like crayons."

Vitosh wanted to make sure she purchased hygiene products as well as toys with her toddler, to take the opportunity to teach her little girl about her own hygiene.

"It's kind of just a learning experience for everybody and your giving at the same time," Vitosh said.