Operation Christmas Child Saturday at mall

NILES

Operation Christmas Child Northeast Ohio will have a community kickoff to ramp up National Collection Week. The event will be in Eastwood Mall Community Room in the Dillard’s concourse from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday.

Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse, has collected and delivered more than 77 million shoe box gifts to hurting kids in some 130 countries since 1993.

This year, OCC aims to touch the lives of more than eight million children, many of whom have never before received a gift.