WILLIAMSBURG — Local families are preparing for the school year with back-to-school sales and adding more items to their lists for children in need worldwide.
Shoebox packers are using this time to purchase gifts and essential items to fill Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts for children in over 100 countries.
Many around the world are not able to afford school supplies, and coloring pencils, crayons, and markers are a luxury many cannot access, according to Samaritan’s Purse.
The organization notes that for Olesea Makarets, a shoebox recipient from Moldova, markers in her home were shared among her siblings. The colorful markers were used until the very last drop, and then she and her siblings would dip the markers in water to try to make them last longer.
When Makarets received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox, 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.”
This simple gift deeply impacted Makarets’ life.
She said, “Receiving a shoebox gift made me realize that Jesus, the powerful man in the Bible, is actually real.”
The power of packing school supplies in shoebox gifts, can transform a child’s life and point them toward a greater hope, according to Samaritan’s Purse.
National Collection Week is Nov. 18 through 25. Participants can donate $10 per shoebox gift online through “Follow Your Box” and receive a tracking label to discover its destination.
Those who prefer the convenience of online shopping can browse samaritanspurse.org/
Since 1993, the organization notes Operation Christmas Child has collected and delivered more than 220 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in more than 170 countries and territories.
For more information, visit samaritanspurse.org/occ.
