CHAMPAIGN, IL (Chambana Today) – Champaign families are filling empty shoeboxes with school supplies like pencils, crayons and notebooks, alongside personal care items and toys. Operation Christmas Child (OCC) is collecting these boxes for children returning to school who may need help acquiring all of the supplies they need. OCC will deliver the gift-filled shoeboxes worldwide to boys and girls in need. In 2024, Operation Christmas Child hopes to collect enough shoeboxes to reach another 12 million children.
Many children around the world are not able to afford school supplies, and coloring pencils, crayons, and markers are a luxury many cannot access. For Olesea Makarets, a shoebox recipient from Moldova, she remembers what stood out to her most. “I couldn’t take my eyes off a pack of colorful markers. My siblings and I shared the markers we had but now I had received a pack of my very own.”
National Collection Week is November 18-25. Participants can donate $10 per shoebox gift online through “Follow Your Box.” Those who prefer the convenience of online shopping can browse samaritanspurse.org/buildonline to select gifts matched to a child’s specific age and gender.
Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected and delivered more than 220 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in more than 170 countries and territories.