Published: November 18, 2008 02:23 pm            

McCreary residents pack simple shoe box gifts

Local volunteers are collecting simple shoe box gifts personally packed by hundreds of children, families, and individuals here in McCeary County.

 From here, the shoe box gifts will be sorted and sent using whatever means necessary—sea containers, trucks, buses, trains, airplanes, helicopters, boats, camels, even dog sleds—to reach suffering children around the world. For many, a shoe box will be first gift they ever receive.  

 “A pencil may not mean a whole lot to a child here in America, but many children around the world can't even go to school without basic school supplies,” says Lance Kaufman, who oversees the project in the Mid-South region of the United States.  "This project is an incredible opportunity to impact children who have nothing this season."

LOCAL COLLECTION SITE AND TIMES NOV 17-24:

•Walkers Chapel Baptist Church

84 PP Walker Ln

Parkers Lake KY 42634

Phone:  (800) 460-2856 

Mon - Tues: 11:00am - 7:00pm

Wed: 11:00am - 8:00pm

Thurs - Sat: 11:00am - 7:00pm

Sun: 10:00am - 8:00pm

Mon: 9:00am - 1:00pm

 Right now you can join the effort to help the world’s largest Christmas project hand-deliver some 8 million gift-filled shoe boxes to children in more than 90 countries suffering from natural disaster, war, terrorism, disease, famine, and poverty.

 WHAT YOU CAN DO TO GET INVOLVED:

•PREPARE—Enlist families, churches, scout troops, community groups and businesses to take part in creating shoe box gifts for needy children worldwide.

•PACK—Fill shoe boxes with school supplies, toys, necessity items, candy and a letter of encouragement. Step-by-step shoe box packing instructions are available at www.samaritanspurse.org.

•PROCESS—Sign up to join Operation Christmas Child volunteers at collection sites as part of the effort to prepare millions of shoe box gifts for delivery to underprivileged kids on six continents.

Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse headed by Franklin Graham, has delivered more than 61 million gift-filled shoe boxes to needy children in some 130 countries.

        

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