Staff Writer
Cordele Dispatch
Cordele —
Local volunteers will kick off Operation Christmas Child National Collection Week with a celebration at the Cordele Relay Center, Wenona Baptist Church Sunday, Sept. 12 at 3 p.m.
Cordele kids, families and volunteers will host a celebration to kick off the collection of some 2,000 shoe box gifts that they expect to be donated locally for hurting children worldwide.
For thousands of shoe boxes—filled with toys, school supplies and necessity items—Wenona will be the first stop on their journey. From here, the shoe boxes will be 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 the 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) 322-7609 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.
