PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – Christmas is arriving early in the Star City as the Presque Isle Wesleyan Church prepares to serve as a collection point for Operation Christmas Child. Soon, with the help of local volunteers, the site will be brimming with festively wrapped shoeboxes full of gifts.
Through Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest Christmas project, Presque Isle residents are helping send shoebox gifts this year to more than 8 million children in 100 countries suffering from natural disaster, war, terrorism, disease, famine and poverty. From Presque Isle, the shoebox gifts will be sorted and sent using whatever means necessary – sea containers, trucks, trains, airplanes, boats, camels, even dog sleds – to reach suffering children around the world.
Operation Christmas Child uses tracking technology that allows donors to “follow your box” to the destination country where it will be hand-delivered to a child in need. To register shoebox gifts and find out what country they are delivered to, use the EZ Give donation form found at www.samaritanspurse.org.
Last year, Presque Isle Wesleyan Church contributed 2,345 to join the Operation Christmas Child effort. This year, organizers hope to collect over 2,497 gift-filled shoeboxes from families, kids, churches, schools and civic organizations in the area.
To get involved, you can:
• Prepare – Enlist families, churches, Scout troops, community groups and businesses to take part in creating shoebox gifts for needy children worldwide.
• Pack – Fill shoeboxes with school supplies, toys, necessity items, hard candy and a letter of encouragement. Step-by-step shoebox packing instructions are available at www.samaritanspurse.org.
• Process – Sign up to join Operation Christmas Child volunteers at collection sites in Presque Isle as part of the effort to prepare millions of shoebox gifts for delivery to underprivileged kids on six continents.
Shoeboxes can be dropped off at the Presque Isle Wesleyan Church, located at 387 Centerline Road, through Nov. 22. Times are as follows: Nov. 17-19 from noon-5 p.m., Nov. 20-21 from noon-3 p.m., and Nov. 22 from noon-5 p.m.
Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse, headed by Franklin Graham, has delivered more than 77 million gift-filled shoeboxes to needy children in some 130 countries.
For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child, call 1-800-353-5949 or visit www.samaritanspurse.org.
