With grateful, giving and caring hearts, Stettler-area churches, schools and individuals once again extend their love as they pack shoe boxes for needy children in the annual Operation Christmas Child campaign over the next month.
All filled boxes must be delivered to Stettler Alliance Church from Nov. 15 to 21 – National Shoe Box Collection Week for the project under Samaritan’s Purse.
Individuals, families, schools, churches, and community groups are encouraged fill shoe boxes with a variety of toys, school supplies, and hygiene items, plus personal notes and photos for children in developing countries around the world.
Organizers are aiming to more than double last year’s figure of 210 shoe boxes.
“Since this is our second year, we are hoping to collect more than 500 shoe boxes to send to Latin American Countries like El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico and others,” said church pastor Scott Whitford.
“We anticipate a great response from our tremendous community and region.”
“We are proud to work with such a great organization as Samaritan’s purse that has earned world-wide respect and acclamation for it’s relief efforts and desire to provide life essentials to third world and impoverished peoples, and even prouder to establish a stronger connection with our great community who have always responded generously to the needs around us - now we want to reach out and meet needs all over the world with the simple gift of packing shoeboxes with toys and basic hygiene items.”
For many of these children, this will be the first gift they have ever received.
Each gift-filled shoe box collected in Canada will make a long journey to the outstretched hands of a needy child in South America or Central America or West Africa,
Shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child open doors and create opportunities to provide other help for children, their families and their communities in the form of safe drinking water, initiatives for literacy and job skills, feeding programs and medical care.
For more information, phone Stettler Alliance Church at 403-742-1135.