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Operation Christmas Child

With holiday supplies already covering the store shelves, individuals, families, churches and groups in Thermopolis are working to make Christmas a reality for needy children around the world. Filling shoeboxes with toys, school supplies, hygiene items and notes of encouragement, the community is once again preparing to help Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest Christmas project of its kind, to collect gift-filled shoeboxes.

The goal for Northeastern Wyoming (Thermopolis, Casper, Douglas, Lusk, Gillette, Sheridan, Buffalo, Riverton, and Lander) is 10,000 shoeboxes, which would break a record for this region of the state. Last year, a record was broken when nearly 9,000 shoeboxes were collected. Thermopolis community residents collected 358 boxes last year.

“Look what God has done in eight years: from 3,000 to nearly 9,000 shoeboxes,” said Wanda Klietz, Northeast Wyoming Area Coordinator.

National Collection Week is Nov. 16-23.

At the Thermopolis collection site, Risen Son Southern Baptist Church at 342 Amoretti, anyone can drop off a gift-filled shoebox to send to a child overseas. Then using whatever means necessary—trucks, trains, boats, bikes and even elephants—the shoebox gifts will be delivered to children worldwide. Drop off your shoeboxes Monday, Nov. 16-Monday, Nov. 23 from 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. daily.

Those who pack a shoebox can track where it goes. Visit their website to learn more: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/follow-your-box/. Donors will receive an email telling the country where their shoeboxes are delivered.

For many children who receive one, the shoebox gift will be the first gift they have ever gotten. Acceptable items include hygiene products, like brushes, combs, toothbrushes and toothpaste, socks, gloves, small toys, coloring books, crayons, and hard candy. Personal notes from and photos of the individuals and families packing shoeboxes are also encouraged. Items not acceptable to pack and ship include chocolate and toys resembling war and violence. Visit their website for ideas of what can and cannot be placed into a shoebox: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/what-goes-in-my-shoebox-suggestions/.

Operation Christmas Child has collected and delivered more than 125 million shoebox gifts to distribute to children in more than 150 countries since 1993. Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization headed by Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelist Billy Graham.

For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child, call Shannon Shaffer at 864-2283 or visit http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/.

 

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