Operation Christmas Child Collecting Shoe Boxes in Laramie This Week

Get Your Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes Ready, Collection week is November 14 to November 20 in Laramie. This year Operation Christmas Child volunteers in the Laramie area are working to collect 1,250 Gift filled Shoe Boxes for Needy Kids This Christmas. While many families are busy with holiday activities, a group of local volunteers including UW Students, Special Olympic Athletes and local businesses are focused on filling empty shoe boxes with school supplies, toys, hygiene items and notes of encouragement for needy kids overseas. These groups are participating in the world’s largest Christmas project of its kind, Operation Christmas Child, an effort that has hand-delivered 86 million gifts to kids worldwide since 1993. If you would like to pack a shoe box for a child in need check out the video below of American Idol winner Scotty McCreery as he shows what exactly goes well in each shoe box.

This year-round project of Samaritan’s Purse is coming to its peak, as local businesses, churches and schools prepare to collect gift-filled shoe boxes during National Collection Week, Nov. 14-20, 2011. Participants can drop off their shoe box gifts at Laramie Valley Chapel, which is bustling with activity to help kids in 100 countries, know they are loved and not forgotten this Holiday Season.

Local Collection Sites:

Laramie Valley Chapel
4801 Quarter Horse Drive
Laramie, WY 82070

Drop Off Times:

November 14, Monday: 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
November 15, Tuesday: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
November 16, Wednesday: 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
November 17, Thursday: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
November 18, Friday: 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
November 19, Saturday: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
November 20, Sunday: 12 p.m. – 4 p.m

Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse, uses whatever means necessary to reach suffering children around the world with these gifts of hope, including sea containers, trucks, trains, airplanes, boats, camels and dog sleds. Tracking technology also allows donors to “follow” their box to the destination country where it will be hand-delivered to a child in need. To register shoe box gifts and find out the destination country, use the Follow Your Box donation form found at www.samaritanspurse.org/occ.

What You Can Do To Get Involved:

PREPARE—Enlist families, churches, scout troops, community groups and businesses to take part in creating shoe box gifts for needy children worldwide.
PACK—Fill shoe boxes with school supplies, toys, necessity items and a letter of encouragement. Step-by-step shoe box packing instructions are available at www.samaritanspurse.org/occ.

PROCESS—Sign up to join Operation Christmas Child volunteers at the collection site in Laramie as part of the effort to prepare millions of shoe box gifts for delivery to underprivileged kids on six continents.

For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child, call Heather Larson at 307-399-8467 or visit www.samaritanspurse.org/occ. National Collection Week for gift-filled shoe boxes is Nov. 14-20, 2011.