Operation Christmas Child relying on Calgarians’ generosity
Operation Christmas Child is kicking off its annual shoebox campaign with a goal of matching the huge number of gifts donated by generous Calgarians during last year’s campaign.
The drive is an annual initiative of the Christian relief and development organization, Samaritan’s Purse, in which people fill shoeboxes with school supplies, hygiene items and toys for later delivery to needy children in a dozen countries. During last year’s campaign, Canadians filled 666,000 such shoeboxes.
Frank King, spokesman for Samaritan’s Purse in Calgary, said that despite challenging economic times, Operation Christmas Child continues to be heavily supported both in the city and across Alberta.
“Calgarians have been amazing through all the tough times that this city and this province have experienced in the last couple of years, with their generosity of spirit and their generosity of giving,” said King.
“We are extremely grateful to all of them for continuing to think about others even as they deal with their own difficulties.
“Last year, 660,000 children received shoeboxes from Canadians. We hope to at least reach that number or surpass it this year,” he added.
Donors can use their own shoebox or pick one up from Samaritan’s Purse and, after filling it, drop it off at a nearby pickup point. The Samaritan’s Purse website (samaritanspurse.ca) has an interactive tool under the Operation Christmas Child link that lets people enter a postal code to find the closest drop-off location.
“We take them to two processing centres, one of which is here in Calgary, (and) inspect them to make sure there’s nothing that would scare or harm a child,” said King, noting the boxes are then shipped to about a dozen countries in Central American, the Caribbean and Africa, as well as Ukraine.
“Our partners in those countries take those boxes and arrange for distribution.
“In many cases, they will be the very first gift those children have ever received in their lives,” added King.
People can also pack a shoebox online by using the PackaBox.ca service that allows donors to choose and purchase items from a digital store, before volunteers from Samaritan’s Purse later physically collect and pack the chosen items for overseas distribution.
The national collection week runs from Nov. 13-19, so all shoe- boxes need to be dropped off before then. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected and distributed almost 147 million shoebox gifts around the globe.