How To Participate In Operation Christmas Child

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As I point out in my post about coupons for the military, our residents enjoy activities that involve giving to others. That’s why I encourage you to offer your residents the opportunity to take part in Operation Christmas Child.

Here’s what Operation Christmas Child is all about as quoted from their website:

Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan’s Purse, demonstrates God’s love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, shares the Good News of Jesus Christ. We collect and send simple shoebox gifts filled with toys, school supplies, and hygiene items to children affected by war, poverty, disaster, famine, and disease. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has delivered more than 146 million shoebox gifts to children in more than 160 countries and territories.

Check out the Samaritan’s Purse website for information on how to put together an Operation Christmas Child shoebox. Even though it’s still summer, this is the perfect time to collect gifts to put in the shoeboxes. Why? Because you can buy items at great prices during back-to-school sales.

You can collect gifts for your boxes in a variety of ways. Ask friends, neighbors, family members, and staff to donate individual items. Hold fundraisers, then send residents and volunteers out shopping. Offer the opportunity for people to sponsor a box “in memory of” or “in honor of” someone special. We also applied for and received a small grant for our project one year.

A few more tips we’ve learned over the years:

• Use standard-sized shoeboxes. It’s discouraging for a child to receive gifts in a small kid-sized shoebox when the child next to them receives gifts in a boot-sized box. Standard-sized boxes are also easier to pack in shipping crates.

• Check with local stores that sell shoes; they’re often willing to save shoeboxes for you.

• Please note that customs regulations no longer allow candy or toothpaste in the boxes. (This refers to boxes packed in the United States. Other countries may have different rules.)

• Include items that go together (pencils with a sharpener and extra eraser, a flashlight with extra batteries, etc.).

• While it may tempt you to buy inexpensive items to keep the cost of the boxes down, be sure everything is of good quality. You don’t want an item to break the first time a child uses it.

• Choose lightly scented soaps and double wrap them in zipped plastic baggies. This prevents the scent from overpowering other items in the box.

• Remove as much packaging material from your gifts as possible. Then you can fit more items in the box, and it prevents trash from being sent overseas.

• If you send your gifts in a plastic tub, place the wrapping paper so it shows through from the inside instead of wrapping the outside. Then the paper is less likely to tear.

• Consider packing extra boxes for boys in the 10-14 age group. This group typically receives the lowest number of boxes.

• This is a great time to invite community groups to come in and help with shopping, sorting gifts, wrapping boxes, and filling boxes.

• The project becomes even more meaningful when you hold a “blessing” service right before shipping the boxes. This allows residents to get together and pray for the children who will receive the boxes they’ve packed.

• Remember that you can include encouraging notes, pictures, or self-addressed postcards in your boxes. We’ve also asked children in our onsite childcare center to make drawings to add to the boxes.

 

Have your residents ever packed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child? I would love to see your suggestions in the comment section!