Linden Christian & Grant Memorial bring home the boxes for Operation Christmas Child!

Operation Christmas Child (aka OCC) is exactly what it sounds like - a massive operation for those of us living in countries of abundance to to give a gift at the season of Christ's birth to children suffering from poverty in other communities around the world.

This morning, Grant Memorial and Linden Christian School got together for a MONUMENTAL collection of boxes for OCC, with over a thousand from each. The past number of weeks of collecting and putting together boxes culminated in a single moment this morning at Grant Memorial where members of the school and church got together to create a human chain that passed, packed, and shipped the nearly 3000 boxes out, with much of the cost of the shipping itself funded by donations from parents and from church members.

Thousands of children this Christmas will be receiving boxes from Winnipegers connected with the program, just one of hundreds of north American communities that take part in OCC every year. The total shipped since 1990 is in the tens of millions. If you want to join in with the work of Operation Christmas Child, this article contains everything you need to know to get going.

While the organization that has carried the project every year for almost 25 years, Samaritan's Purse, understands these small gifts of toys, soap, school supplies, and other small items will be a relatively small impact on lives in need of greater transformation at the structural and socio-economic level. However, the small humble shoeboxes prepared by families and communities across the western world can do something the typical donation-funded development work cannot always do - create in a single moment of time a brief personal link with those who live from us and far below the living standards in our society.

University students far from their home communities may know that first hand. The care packages that I and many students like myself received over the years from our families and church communities during the Christmas seasons would not make our daunting essay deadlines go away, would solve our financial woes, and would usually get eaten rather quickly. But they would remind us in a powerful way that there were friends, families, and even those we had never met who truly cared about us and had taken the time to put that care into something tangible that would enter our lives as a vivid reminder. Those care packages were immensely powerful and encouraging, helping us march onward through the isolation and exhaustion of university life.

Operation Christmas Child is something you can do right wherever you are, in your family, as an individual, or as a larger community.

Any standard shoe box will do. You can choose a boy or girl from the age groups of 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14. Check out these guidlines, courstesy of Samaritan's Purse, on how to get one ready to go! Skip to the bottom for a breakdown of where you can drop your box off.

Here are some things to consider for the shoebox:

• School Supplies - Items such as pens, pencils, pencil crayons, note pads, and picture books
• Hygiene Items  - Items such as: facecloth, toothbrush, comb, and soap. Please place soap in a sealable bag
• Toys & Other Gifts - Items such as: stuffed animals, small musical instruments, hair clips, toy jewelry, t-shirts, socks, and candy (loose, individually wrapped hard candy in a sealable bag)
• Personal Note  - Include a personal note and/or a photo in your shoebox (not inside the donation envelope)

Here are some things to AVOID:

• Decks of standard playing cards (other card games such as UNO are allowed)
• Food and any chewy, crumbly, or soft candy: Including gum (due to customs regulations)
• Used items (due to customs regulations)
• Toothpaste (due to customs regulations)
• Liquids or items that could leak, melt, freeze, or break - Shampoo, creams, lip balm, bath gels, mirrors, or glass, etc. (these can damage other items in the shoebox).
• Items that can scare or harm a child - War-related toys, knives, and toy guns, etc.
• Using a backpack instead of a shoe box is problematic because it creates unfair circumstances at distribution events.  Backpacks can also cause problems when cartons are being packed, and when shipments are going through Customs.

COLLECTION CENTERS: