Operation Christmas Child in Chippenham had a successful first collection day over the weekend already collecting 560 boxes.

So far between the two main drop off points in Devizes and Chippenham, the total of OCC donation boxes has reached 1,644 with still 11 days to go until the cut-off point.

St Peter’s Church in Lord’s Mead, Chippenham, opened their doors on Saturday (November 7) to take in the donations from the people of Chippenham for the popular donation drive for Operation Christmas Child.

Sue Pulleyblank, the area co-ordinator for Chippenham, said: “Our first day was brilliant, we had 560 boxes on the first weekend alone. Around 40 volunteers turned out to help arrange the boxes, so this was a brilliant start to the collection.”

After an article published in the Gazette and Herald Mrs Pulleyblank started to receive calls about the donation point.

“People have already started ringing in thanks to the paper, which has been really helpful,” added Mrs Pulleyblank.

“Steve Lloyd has already collected the boxes to take to the warehouse so the church is clear and ready to use again for the next collection time. The people of Chippenham have been very generous, people have come in with knitwear or even a dozen boxes to donate. We have even had people bring in bags of sweets.”

The Chippenham collection point at St Peter’s will be open up until November 20, but a change has been made to the opening times on November 19.

The Devizes drop off point at St Andrew’s Church is now closed.

Drop off points:

St Peter`s Church

Address: Lord`s Mead Chippenham Wiltshire SN14 0LL

Time: November 12 9am-12pm and 7pm-9pm, November 13 9am-12pm, November 19 9am-12pm and 2pm-5pm and November 20 9am-12pm.

If people have a large number of boxes to donate then Sue Pulleyblank and the team can arrange to collect them. To contact Sue please call 07800607110.

Shoe Zone

Address: 16 Borough Parade, Chippenham Wilts SN15 3WL

Time: 9.00-5.30 Mon-Sat, 10.30-4.00 Sun