{"id":367750,"date":"2025-11-09T21:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T21:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/367750\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T21:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T21:49:11","slug":"fleming-island-high-schooler-packs-over-1400-christmas-gift-boxes-while-battling-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/367750\/","title":{"rendered":"Fleming Island high schooler packs over 1,400 Christmas gift boxes while battling illness"},"content":{"rendered":"

FLEMING ISLAND, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 A 17-year-old Fleming Island student turned personal hardship into hope for children around the world, packing more than 1,400 gift boxes for Operation Christmas Child<\/a> while battling a debilitating illness.<\/p>\n

Adryana Parris transformed her home into a gift-packing headquarters, filling shoeboxes with toys, school supplies and personal care items that will be distributed to children in need globally through Samaritan\u2019s Purse\u2019s Operation Christmas Child program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started when I was five years old,\u201d said Parris, who began with just one box. \u201cWe just packed one, and then we were like, \u2018Mommy, mommy, we want to pack one more.\u2019 So we just packed one more. And then it\u2019s grown since then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parris\u2019 operation has expanded so much that her neighbors have offered their house to store the 1,400 completed boxes \u2014 and she\u2019s not finished yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we\u2019re not done yet. We\u2019re gonna keep going,\u201d Parris said.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Parris was diagnosed with Bartonella, a severe illness that forced her to withdraw from school. The condition has dramatically limited her mobility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWent from running every day to can\u2019t walk down the driveway,\u201d Parris explained. \u201cFor the past three months, I\u2019ve had fevers every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite these challenges, Parris found motivation in success stories from the program, including a memorable meeting with a former shoebox recipient from Venezuela. Photos on her refrigerator showed children receiving boxes she packed served as daily inspiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taken my mind off my sickness and my circumstances and onto a gift that I can give to someone else,\u201d Parris said. \u201cI would not change the sickness for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parris is currently accepting additional donations before the boxes are collected for distribution. If you are interested, you can email cholaloca19@yahoo.com.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FLEMING ISLAND, Fla. \u2013 A 17-year-old Fleming Island student turned personal hardship into hope for children around the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":367751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,15015,3188,15016,723,7310,177641,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-367750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-clay-county","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-fleming-island","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-operation-christmas-child","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115521949879669401","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}