OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD Trumbull Center to collect gift boxes

Shoe-box gifts have been given to more than 38 million children since 1993.
WARREN -- Area residents are packing and collecting shoe-box gifts for hurting children around the world through Operation Christmas Child.
Operation Christmas Child is a project that encourages children, families, churches and other groups to fill empty shoe boxes with toys, school supplies, hygiene items, photos and personal letters.
The items are then hand-delivered to children worldwide suffering from poverty, war, disease, natural disaster and terrorism.
Trumbull Center, 5000 E. Market St., Suite 13, will be open to receive gift-filled shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child during the project's national collection week, now through Monday.
The Trumbull Center will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Monday, which is the collection deadline.
Mahoning County residents can drop off their shoe boxes at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 119 Stadium Drive, Boardman, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Friday; 9 a.m. to noon Saturday; and noon to 2 p.m. Sunday. Ruth Brayer is the relay coordinator.
This is Trumbull Center's first year as a collection center for OCC.
Last year's collection
Last year, a relay center collected 9,000 gift-filled boxes from the Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana county area. The Trumbull Center has set a goal of 13,000 shoe-box gifts for this year.
More than 7.4 million gift-filled shoe boxes were collected worldwide last year and distributed to children in more than 90 countries. This year's international goal is to collect and distribute 7.8 million shoe-box gifts.
OCC shoe-box gifts have been given to more than 38 million children since 1993.
"This simple and fun project gives people right here in this community a chance to bring a smile to the face of a child very far away from them," said Bonnie Freeman, regional director for Operation Christmas Child Great Lakes. "By taking the time to pack these gifts and pray over them as we drop them off to be sent around the world, we want to show hurting children that they are loved, and that they are not forgotten."
Laura York, who is volunteering as the collection center coordinator for the local project, said, "This is our first year as a collection center, and everyone is excited to be involved with Operation Christmas Child. We are particularly pleased to see the children of our community reaching out to other kids through this program. We pray that this year, there will be even more people in our community involved in Operation Christmas Child."
About the project
Operation Christmas Child is the world's largest international children's Christmas project.
Gift-filled shoe boxes have been a source of hope and joy to children suffering from some of life's hardest circumstances -- those living among civil war in the Darfur region of western Sudan; children who survived last September's terrorist attack in Beslan, Russia; those recovering from war in Kosovo and Bosnia; and children recovering from last December's tsunami in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan's Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism ministry headed by Franklin Graham, the son of noted evangelist Billy Graham.
For more information about Trumbull Center's participation in Operation Christmas Child, call (330) 307-8728 or visit www.TrumbullOCC.org. For more information about OCC, or to receive free materials, call (800) 353-5949 or visit www.samaritanspurse.org.