Posted on Tue, Nov. 17, 2009

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Operation Christmas Child collects gifts in shoe boxes

BY BECCY TANNER

The Wichita Eagle

Local coordinators with Operation Christmas Child hope to collect 19,000 shoe boxes full of gifts in south-central Kansas by next Monday to help underprivileged children throughout the world.

The group collected more than 1,200 boxes at Wichita's Metro East Baptist Church on Monday, local coordinator Ruth Claybrooks said.

That doesn't count boxes dropped off at other sites throughout the area.

The program relies on children, families, schools, churches and community groups to fill shoe boxes with school supplies, toys, necessity items, candy and letters of encouragement. The shoe boxes are then hand-delivered to children throughout the world.

Wichita area residents can deliver their shoe boxes to several drop-off sites. Because the boxes will need to be inspected before being shipped overseas, donors are asked not to seal the packages.

"Wrapping is optional," Claybrooks said. "If they are wrapped, we ask that you wrap the lid and box separately."

For more information or to find a drop-off location, visit www.samaritanspurse.org -- or call 800-435-2436. The collection area includes Wichita, Hutchinson, Pratt, Emporia, Winfield, Newton, Independence and Hillsboro.

Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan's Purse, a Christian relief organization headed by evangelist Franklin Graham.

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