Operation Christmas Child mobilized in Valley today

STAFF REPORT

HOWLAND — Today through Monday, local collection sites for Operation Christmas Child are accepting shoeboxes packed with school supplies, toys, toiletries, candy and personal items for needy children around the world.

Each year, the Mahoning Valley’s contributions to the international project have grown. Last year, the region was responsible for more than 12,000 children receiving what could have been the first and only gift of their lives.

Laura York, Operation Christmas Child’s Northeast Ohio coordinator, however, wants to surpass that number this year.

She is asking for the Valley’s help in meeting the 2009 goal of 15,000 shoebox gifts.

“It’s a fun, simple, inexpensive project that requires creativity and a generous heart to make a real impact on children who have so little,” York said.

The shoebox gifts are collected around the country and in several other countries and distributed to children around the globe who are suffering from disease, famine, war, terrorism and natural disaster.

York reminds people that this project can be as beneficial to the giver as to the child who will receive each shoebox.

“It’s a reminder of how fortunate we are to have so much. The children who will receive these boxes have lost everything,” York said. “A shoebox packed with simple items really does provide them with hope, joy and a reminder that there is someone out there who cares about them.”

This year, Operation Christmas Child has introduced a couple of other opportunities to help. First, if participants use the EZ Give option on www.samaritanspurse.org/occ to print their shoebox labels, their labels will include a bar code, which will be scanned during processing. People can then track where their shoebox gifts were delivered.

Also, Operation Christmas Child has teamed up with area Chick-Fil-A restaurants. Anyone bringing a packed shoebox gift into one of the Valley’s Chick-Fil-A locations Saturday will receive a coupon for a free chicken sandwich.

Operation Christmas Child has drop-off sites in Canfield, Poland, Beloit and Howland.

The Howland location at 5000 E. Market St. serves as the central collection site for the area and offers a variety of volunteer opportunities during collection week. Hours of operation during collection week are posted at Operation Christmas Child’s local Web site, www.occneo.com.

For more information on what to pack into a shoebox, where to drop off your shoeboxes or how you can volunteer, visit www.samaritanspurse.org or www.occneo.com or contact Laura York at (330) 847-5156 or lyorkocc@gmail.com.

Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse, headed by Franklin Graham, has collected and hand-delivered more than 68 million shoebox gifts to hurting kids in some 130 countries since 1993.