OPERATION Christmas Child has finished its collection in Chippenham on a high.

The volunteering team at St Peter’s Church, Lords Mead, closed its collection point for the year on Friday after collecting more than 2,000 boxes to ship overseas. This has been the first year the church has been used as a drop-off point for Operation Christmas Child collections.

Sue Pulleyblank, area co-ordinator for Chippenham, said: “The collection has been amazing. St Peter’s Church has been wonderful for our first year collecting here. The vicar and the congregation have been fantastic, letting us use the whole building. We have had nine checking sessions over the course of the collection period and we have had around 60 people volunteer to help and that’s not including other people who have helped outside the sessions.”

As well as the many volunteers who showed up at the church to help on the final day of packing, the team were paid a visit by Sara Artingstall, area co-ordinator for Wiltshire.

“We had Sara visit the church and she was very happy with the collection. She didn’t realise how big the operation was in Chippenham,” Mrs Pulleybank said.

As well as thanking the volunteers and the church who have made this year’s collection possible, Mrs Pulleyblank also has thanked the Gazette & Herald.

“The publicity from the paper has been great. A big thank you for helping us out this year,” she added.