Operation Christmas Child Party November 5; locals combine for United Outreach

Caring people across the U.S. and a dozen other nations are gearing up for Operation Christmas Child (OCC). Last year, more than eight million shoe boxes were filled with toys and small gifts for delivery to needy boys and girls around the world. Each box enables a child and often an entire family to receive welcome gifts as well as a Gospel message.
An Operation Christmas Child Party will be held Friday, November 5 at the Farmers and Merchants Savings Bank Community room from 12:30 to 8 p.m. The public is invited to bring new items to be packed in shoe boxes and to help fill the boxes.
Individuals, as well as local church groups or organizations, are invited to participate at any level by donating gifts of volunteer time, praying for the outreach, bringing shoeboxes to the party, bringing items to be packed in the boxes, or sponsoring the shipping of a box with a monetary gift.
Last year, volunteers from the local area contributed to this project by packing over 100 boxes. According to the distribution center that received the local boxes, countries that received them were in Europe and Africa.
Although Operation Christmas Child is a great missions outreach for people of all ages, one of the best things about the project is that it encourages kids to help other kids. Packing gifts and praying for the children who will receive them is a great way to teach kids about sharing. The November 5 open house provides opportunities for local children to assist in wrapping and filling boxes.
The journey of a shoebox gift starts with an empty shoe box or a small plastic container. The box can be wrapped (lid separately) or decorated with stickers, although this is not required. At the open house, Christmas wrapping paper will be provided and volunteers will wrap boxes on site.
The next step is to determine whether the gift will be for a boy or girl and the age category. The three age categories are: 2-4, 5-9, and 10-14. Labels for boxes will be provided.
Boxes can be filled with a variety of new gifts that will make a child happy. Gift suggestions include:
• School supplies - pens, pencils and sharpeners, crayons or markers, stamps and inkpad sets, writing pads or paper, solar calculators, coloring and picture books, etc.
• Toys: small cars, balls, dolls, stuffed animals, kazoos, harmonicas, yo-yos, jump ropes, small Etch-A-Sketch, toys that light up or make noise (with extra batteries), Slinky, etc.
• Hygiene items: toothbrush, toothpaste, mild bar soap (in a plastic bag), comb, washcloth
• Other: hard candy and lollipops, mints, gum (place all candy in Ziploc bag) tee-shirts, socks, ball caps, sunglasses, hair clips, toy jewelry, watches, flashlights and extra batteries
• A personal note: A note to the child may be enclosed, as well as a photo of the donor and/or family. (The child may write back if a name and address are included.)
DO NOT INCLUDE: Used or damaged items, war-related items such as toy guns, knives or military figures; chocolate or food; out of date candy; liquids or lotions; medications or vitamins; breakable items such as snowglobes or glass containers; aerosol cans.
Donations are accepted to help the project. A donation of $7 or more per box is used to help cover shipping costs. Monetary gifts to Samaritan’s Purse, the sponsoring organization for OCC, are tax deductible and receipted by the organization.
After the boxes are filled and labeled, they are taken to a drop-off center. The boxes are then transported to regional processing centers. Tractor trailers haul boxes to seven regional centers in the U.S. Volunteers inspect the boxes and pack them into cartons for overseas delivery.
Locally, the regional center is in the Minneapolis metro area. Opportunities are available for people to volunteer at these centers. Several groups from the local area have traveled to Minneapolis and helped in the distribution center in previous years. Those interested may call 800-353-5949 to reach Samaritan’s Purse headquarters for further information.
From the processing center, cartons are loaded onto ships and planes and sent to over 130 countries. National Leadership Teams oversee the delivery of the boxes to churches, schools, orphanages, and children’s hospitals. Children receive boxes and a gospel booklet in their own language.
This shoebox ministry of OCC has been operating since 1993 with over 77 million boys and girls receiving boxes in over 130 countries. People in the local area have been participating for over 12 years. This year’s goal is to send 8.2 million boxes worldwide. A special emphasis this year will be to send extra boxes to Haiti to aid the people recovering from the earthquake.
More information will be available at the Operation Christmas Child open house to be held November 5 in Waukon or by calling Gloria Jackson at 563-568-6113.