Volunteers are collecting Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts this week during National Collection Week.
Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has been collecting and delivering gift-filled shoeboxes to children around the world.
Cindy Long of Sheffield is the North Central Iowa Dropoff Leader for Operation Christmas Child, and describes what can be placed in the shoeboxes.
“With some school supplies, with some hygiene items like a comb, a brush, a toothbrush, no toothpaste or anything liquid can go in it, but a toothbrush, maybe a washcloth, and then some toys, maybe a wow item like a deflated soccer ball and a pump or a big stuffed animal, something that the child can not only have supplies to go to school with and kind of take care of themselves like the toothbrush, but something they can hold and realize that there’s somebody out there, including Jesus, that loves them.”
Long tells RadioOnTheGo News that their goal this year is to fill 12-million shoeboxes across the country.
“And we try to go to places where the kids can benefit from some school supplies, from some toys. We reach kids that have never had a gift in their life, that have never had a toothbrush. I know we go to some orphanages where I heard that there’s one toothbrush for the girls that they all share. Some kids can’t go to school because they don’t have their own pencil or notebook. And then of course, if they don’t have that, they’ve never had a toy.”
There are many drop off locations for the shoeboxes including at the First Covenant Church in Mason City, at the Evangelical Free Churches in both Iowa Falls and Belmond, and at the Christian Reformed Church in Parkersburg.
