Staff Writer
The Americus Times-Recorder
AMERICUS —
Americus children, families and volunteers are scheduled to host a celebration at 7 p.m. Sept. 14 at First Baptist Church at 221 S. Lee St., Americus to kick off the expected 4,200 shoe box gifts to be collected from Americus residents for hurting children worldwide.
For thousands of shoe boxes, which will befilled with toys, school supplies and necessity items, this will be the first stop on their journey. The shoe boxes are then hand-delivered to hurting children around the world using whatever means necessary — sea containers, trucks, trains, airplanes, helicopters, boats, elephants, even dog sleds.
Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse, headed by Franklin Graham, is the world’s largest Christmas project. Since 1993, the project has hand-delivered more than 77 million shoe box gifts to needy children in more than 130 countries.
Samaritan’s Purse 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. Using the EZ Give donation form found at www.samaritanspurse.org, families can register their boxes and find out where in the world their boxes brought joy to children.
For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child, call 229-942-4521 or visit www.samaritanspurse.org. National Collection Week for gift-filled shoe boxes is Nov. 15-22; however, shoe box gifts are collected all year at the Samaritan’s Purse headquarters in Boone, N.C.
