Calvin's Annual Care Packages for College/University Students - 2026

 Welcome back to my Blog.  

It's January once again.  Time sure goes by quick. 

It seems just a short time ago that we were preparing care packages.  

Well, once again, we have done it. 

Year 12   

Two years ago I gave you some interesting facts about the past 10 years, etc, so I thought I'd update that information below.  

It's been some years since we started doing this ministry, and I wanted to know when we started, so after going back to my old blog posts, I discovered it began way back in January 2015 

(but the first post was Feb 2016).   

So we've been doing this for 12 years now.  WOW! 

That first year, we prepared 30 packages for the Ottawa Campus Chaplaincy.  Calvin Congregants donated items that I asked for and on the evening of preparation, we prepared handmade cards, wrapped the boxes, and coloured the wrapping paper.  

Whew, what was I thinking : )!! 

In 2016 we did 60 packages. 

2017 - 114 packages

2018 -  144 packages

2019 - 174 packages 

2020 - 175 packages - and we stopped wrapping the boxes with paper, and just taped them.  : )  Saved a lot of time! Also, I just asked for donations of funds vs stuff.  It's actually easier.  :) 

2021 - 97 packages made by my family during COVID for the youth and young adults of Calvin CRC

2022 - 125 packages again made by my family during COVID and distributed to youth and young adults of Calvin CRC.  

2023 - back to regular packages for Ottawa Campus Chaplaincy and those in school from Calvin CRC.  175 of them. 

2024 - 175 packages once again. 

2025 -  150 boxes, down from our 175.  

2026 -  125 boxes.  

We had wonderful donors again, who contributed just over $3000 this year.   Prices have gone up, so I decided to curb the number of boxes.  

Here's what went into the boxes this time around 

(Some NEW items, and keeping out some older items)

1 New Testament Bibles  1  box

2 Juice boxes   1 / box

3 Microwave popcorn   2 / box

4 Hand Sanitizers 1 / box

5 GoGo Squeez  1 / box

6 Tic Tac   1 / Box

7 Nestle full-sized chocolate bars  1 / box

8 Small tissue packets  1 / box

9 Gum packets   1 per box 

10 Rice Crispy squares - 2 / box

11 Hot Chocolate  2 / box 

12 Nature's Bakery Fig Bars  1 / box

13 Bear Paws - Chocolate Chip  1 / box

14 Celebration Mini Chocolate Chip in Packets - 1 / box

15 Trail mix  1 / box

16 Cheddar Cheese Goldfish 1 / box 

17 Kirkland Signature Soft & Chewy Granola Bars, 1.54 kg   - 2 / box

18 Fruitsations  2 / box

19 Brookside fruit and chocolate  1 / box

20 Sesame Snaps   1 / box

21 Oatmeal packages  1 / box

22 Earl Grey Tea packets 2 / box 

23 Herbal Tea's  - 2 / box

24 Werthers' originals  2 / box  each 135G back contains 26 candies

25 $5 tim's cards   1 / box 

26 Card  1 / box

The total number of pieces purchased and put into the boxes was 6500 - give or take a couple of hundred more : ) 

Thanks to all from Calvin who donated items or funds to make this possible. 

Here's what happened to make this event happen once again 

It all starts with a trip to Costco, and usually Loblaws, and Dollarama

Here's the end result.  Items just waiting for a home : ).  

Then, on Tuesday, January 27th, our Catechism Class, Youth Group, and some Young Adults gathered together to get the job done.  

Lewis looks happy and ready to help out.  

Alex is the same.  

Amelia and Evangline are working hard.  

As is Luke : ) All smiles. 

Can you see Colton?  

No smile Elenora?  

Anika, I hope those Wherther's don't drop all over the place : ) 

We had to bring the actual boxes downstairs as well. 

I put them together before we started.  Saves Time.  

Hmmmm,  interesting photo Maya : ) 

I showed them a trick where you can take 8 boxes at a time.  

 Whoa : ) 

Luke is coming through!  

All the items are now downstairs and ready to be placed in the boxes.  

I recruited Scott and Phil once again to help out.  

We also made cards again for the boxes.  Megan and Leanne (also brought out of retirement : ) ) headed that up with some grade 6 - 8's.   

And so the filling of boxes once again begins.  

Scott made sure things went into the boxes in the order I asked for.  

Alex, don't crush the goldfish : ) 

Yes Lewis, I'm taking a picture of you : ) 

Hey, Phil, it looks like you are gonna fall over : )  

I just noticed that. 

We crushed the boxes for recycling. 

Colton shows us how.  

Good job.  

Uhhhh ok Colton : ) 

We keep moving along.  

Scott started to organize the recycling.  

The boxes are filling up.  

And yes,  I actually worked again : ) 

One full box, complete with a card ready for taping.  

Nice organizing, Scott!! 

Soooo, we (I) may have gotten a wee bit more this year than last year, even without including some items of last year.  

So I had to have us pack the boxes so there was no air pockets : ) 

There, finished.  

125 boxes are ready to bless students.  

Thanks to all who helped out this year. 

After the annual picture, we bring the boxes upstairs for storage until I can get them to Ryan for distribution, as well as people in Calvin who are students.  Alex, that's a lot of boxes  : ) 

Oh, and Rebecca helped us out too.  Thanks. : ) 

Time to clean up the card-making tables.  

Whew, sure was a noisy endeavour :) 

Everything is packed and compacted.   

Thanks once again to all who donated funds towards this ministry event. Thanks to our youth and young adults who came out to make this happen once again. 

Until next year D.V.