Without a doubt, it is safe to say of Judy Lunt and Jan Ashton this holiday season that visions of shoeboxes dance in their heads.

Lunt and Ashton were the coordinators of Operation Christmas Child, a program in which people were asked to fill shoeboxes with school items and toys for needy children throughout the world to be delivered by Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian relief organization in Boone, N.C.

The women coordinated the project for the First United Methodist Church of Brewer, which served as a collection site for shoebox donations in northern and central Maine.

Last year, on its own, the First United Methodist Church of Brewer collected 125 shoeboxes.

This year, the church decided to open the program to the public, and what a tremendous success that proved to be!

Lunt reported that 5,239 shoeboxes were collected at the Brewer site. Adding those to the shoeboxes collected in Sanford, the other Maine site, meant 11,371 shoeboxes went to Samaritan’s Purse from the good folks in the Pine Tree State.

The total for New England and New York, Lunt added, was 194,000.”We really feel blessed that so many churches and organizations participated this year,” Lunt said, “and Jan and I have indicated we will be doing it again, next year.”

Lunt and Ashton thank everyone “for their support in packing shoeboxes, and also coming over and helping us pack the boxes into cartons. It was quite an undertaking.”

She was also pleased to announce that Samaritan’s Purse would be sending 300,000 shoebox gifts to India this year, adding that “we have a number of shoebox gifts on their way to Africa to help kids infected with HIV, so the gifts are going everywhere.”

A packed tractor-trailer, donated by Roadway Express, transported the shoebox gifts to North Carolina the last week of November, and now, thanks to your generosity and help, they are headed for points around the globe.

With less than a week to go before Christmas, Manna Ministries director Bill Rae reports that organization still has more than 100 families waiting to be “adopted” for the holidays.

Manna serves entire families who are among the working poor, elderly and those living on a fixed income. Manna asks the more fortunate to either adopt a family or individual, bring in specific gift items or send a donation, and members of the Manna staff will make the holiday purchases.

Among the items needed are large and extra-large sweat shirts and pants; work boots sizes 10 and 101/2, gloves and hats, a set of pots and pans, an electric frying pan, and large and extra-large flannel shirts.

Manna needs these gifts and donations by Saturday, Dec. 21.

You can bring your contributions from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. through Friday, Dec. 20, or from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 21, to Manna at 180 Center St. in Bangor.

Last October, Douglas Joy of Brewer had a heart attack at his home and really “needed help!” he wrote in extending his “heartfelt thanks” to the “Brewer EMTs who responded so quickly.”

If help had not arrived so promptly, he explained, “I would never have made it” to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

From the efficient work of the emergency room staff to the subsequent successful open-heart surgery and three weeks in the intensive care unit with its “compassionate, efficient and capable” nurses, and two more weeks in recovery with the same “wonderful” help, Joy was finally able to return home.

For all the people who came to his aid in this time of crisis, he is most grateful for their “quick response, action and continued care.”Joy believes that “we who live in this area are very lucky to have such dedicated and capable medical professionals to help us when we need it.”

We add our congratulations and a hearty “well done” to that of the American Association of Retired Persons Maine Chapter, which honored three people for their work with AARP Maine’s Tax-Aide program.

At the AARP Volunteer Recognition luncheon earlier this month, Catherine Kelley of Corinth, Bonnie Lou Jipson of Ellsworth, and Charlie Kyes of Farmingdale were honored for their community service.

Kelly serves as coordinator of the AARP Tax-Aide program, and Jipson and Kyes are two of the 152 volunteers who worked in the program from Feb. 1 through April 15.Last year, Tax-Aide volunteers provided free tax preparations for 10,960 Maine residents. To learn more about Tax-Aide or to find a site in your area, call (888) 227-7669 or visit www.aarp.org/taxaide.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.